Designing a Model for Educational Businesses development in Kindergartens in Tehran City

Purpose: Entrepreneurs, investors, and others involved in the education industry are increasingly interested in investing in educational businesses, including kindergartens. Educational business entrepreneurs face many risks when starting an educational business. Education business managers need to be able to predict that their business will do well in the future. Knowing the factors that drive this type of enterprise is crucial. There are continuous and rapid changes in the current business environment. In such a setting, kindergarten centers, on the one hand, focus on delivering top-notch instruction, and on the other, they strive to maximize their revenues and grow their business by retaining the trust of their patrons. Managers at kindergartens are looking for ways to make sure customer choices lead to financial viability and long-term viability in business challenges. According to the material presented, it can be said that kindergarten centers, like other businesses, are facing fierce competition in the educational market, issues such as the threat of fewer customers, diverse demands of parents, powerful competitors, which are a threat to the continuation of the business of existing educational institutions. This indicates the existence of a problem that requires providing a model for the development of educational businesses in kindergartens. In other words, we are looking to identify the influencing factors on the development of kindergartens in Tehran, and with this question (what is the model of educational businesses development in kindergarten centers?). According to the point above presented, it can be said that kindergarten centers, like other businesses, are facing fierce competition in the educational market. Issues such as the threat of fewer customers, diverse demands of parents, and powerful competitors are a threat to the continuation of the business of existing educational institutions.
Method: This research is practical from the point of view of purpose and qualitative in terms of data collection method. This research focuses on managers of kindergarten centers with two characteristics, being active and having at least 5 years’ experience in setting up and continuing the successful management of a kindergarten center, as well as academic expert. Semi-structured interviews used to gather the data by analyzing the interviews’ content and extracting the codes, the dimensions and components of the educational business development model in the kindergarten centers identified and extracted. The dimensions and components of the educational business development model identified and extracted. Triple open, axial and selective coding of data done through MaxQda software version 2020.
Findings: The research findings showed that at the end of the open coding process, 117 concepts labeled. At the end of the open coding stage, the primary concepts reviewed, analyzed and categorized to identify subcategories. Based on this, in axial coding, 30 subcategories extracted from 117 open codes. Finally, in the selective coding stage, 9 main categories were identified. The classification of the obtained results is focused on the design of the model, and this model has nine main categories: kindergarten brand awareness (with 4 components of using social media, promoting brand awareness through the distribution of educational information, raising awareness of parents about the kindergarten brand, raising awareness of stakeholders of kindergarten brand), marketing strategy (with 7 components of product, location, physical environment, promotion, price, people, process), interactions with parents (with two components of parents' participation in educational processes, sharing information with parents), educational content (with 3 components of skill-oriented and targeted educational content, providing educational services to parents, using the opinions of experts in the field of children's education in the field of kindergarten educational materials), financial resources (with 2 components of developing supplier financial resources, financial partnerships with educational organizations), networking with stakeholders (with 2 components of interaction with stakeholders, benefiting from the potential of the stakeholders' community (parents, local community, virtual platforms), image position (brand) of the kindergarten (with 6 components of convincing parents, effective content about kindergarten services, developing attractions The appearance of a special kindergarten brand, introducing a constructive educational environment, introducing the kindergarten brand with advanced facilities and expert staff, introducing the kindergarten through the local community), organizing online educational events (with 2 components of using virtual infrastructure for education, online programs raising parents' awareness), designing the physical environment (with 2 components of physical design appropriate to children's feelings and opinions, environmental design standardization).
Conclusion: Early childhood education can help build a countries growth and development. Educational businesses play a vital role in preparing these infrastructures at the kindergarten level. There are few studies that examined educational business development, particularly at the level of preschool centers.