Culture and knowledge co‐creation in R&D collaboration between MNCs and Chinese universities

Abstract

This paper examines the role of culture in university-industry R&D collaboration and knowledge interaction in the context of multinational corporations in China. Earlier university-industry studies focus primarily on one-way technology and knowledge transfer; however, the present study argues that in the studied context more interactive types of knowledge interaction like knowledge co-creation should be of key concern. The main challenge of the R&D collaboration lies in the understanding of culture in general and Chinese guanxi (interpersonal relationship) in particular in collaborative knowledge creation, in which the dominant type of knowledge involved is most often tacit, future oriented, complex and context-specific. This is particularly important when dealing simultaneously with multidisciplinary applied research where cultural challenges appear prominent.

Universities–industry collaboration: A systematic review

“…Fifth, there is a need to conduct comparative studies across different countries in relation to UIC. We do not know whether this kind of interaction can succeed in such conditions (Hong, Heikkinen, & Blomqvist, 2010). Furthermore, research in this area can investigate the extent of which inter-country UIC can contribute to the national innovation capacity of the hosting country (Jin, Wu, & Chen, 2009).…”

Application of a Learning Management System for Knowledge Management: Adoption and Cross-cultural Factors

“…Organizational culture and values can influence the use of KM technologies and the outcomes of such use (Alavi et al, 2005;Donate and Guadamillas, 2010). There is a growing stream of literature on the significance of national values and cultures on knowledge creation and sharing, for example in the Chinese context (Hong et al, 2010) and in Arab Cultures (Weir and Hutchings, 2005). However most of the work to date on culture and KM has focused on knowledge transfer and creation practices, whereas the use of support tools and technology platforms for KM has been less well researched (Donate and Guadamillas, 2010).…”

Factors Impacting Cross-Cultural Knowledge Sharing Through Online Systems in Organisational Settings

“…The ingroup/out-group distinction has a double implication for knowledge sharing. It may be easier for collectivists to share with their in-group members for the sake of collective bene¯t while individualists may not have this motivation since they do not form close in-groups; meanwhile, collectivists may have di±culties in sharing with outsiders due to lack of trust while individualists may not encounter this problem because of the absence of any in-group/out-group boundary (Ardichvili et al, 2006;Hong et al, 2010;Hutchings and Michailova, 2004;Khalil and Seleim, 2010).…”