Towards a Blue Ocean shift: exploring value innovation for Philippine academic libraries

Purpose This study explores how the Blue Ocean Strategy (BOS) fits into the non-business context of libraries in the Philippines. It aims to review the existing BOS implementation in the different sectors, including its occurrence in libraries, diagnose the typical tendencies of Red or Blue thinking among libraries, and draw up a plan for a Blue Ocean shift. Design/methodology/approach This study employed mixed descriptive, quantitative and strategic methods to address the research objectives, using the BOS as its theoretical framework. Findings While BOS has been widely discussed in the context of business, education and other sectors, findings revealed that the strategy has been explored and applied in the field of librarianship, albeit in its infancy. While very open to collaboration, respondents of the study are more inclined towards the Red Ocean strategy as they focus on their existing market base/customers and recognize moderate competition involved among their counterpart libraries and alternative venues. Specific strategies and solutions leading towards the Blue Ocean shift on what the libraries can eliminate, reduce, raise and create in their current state were drawn. Research limitations/implications Given that this is an exploratory study, shortcomings are expected regarding data scope and lack of generalizability, as sampling does not represent the entire population of library managers in the country. However, the initial results are deemed useful for maximizing Blue Ocean opportunities. Originality/value BOS is doable, potentially beneficial to libraries and applicable to local settings. This research offers another perspective and potential solutions for libraries using a business strategy not usual for the library community.