Abstract:

Knowledge management (KM) is widely applied in devising the unknown from the known by building, compiling, organizing, transforming, transferring, pooling, applying, and safeguarding the knowledge. In Malaysia, the knowledge transfer and sharing processes are a concern of local policymakers as the country transforms into knowledge based economy. The Malaysian Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE) put the concern on knowledge transfer on Malaysia research universities (RU) as the research, development and commercialization collaborations have been the key activities of Malaysia RU. However, the knowledge transfer through research collaboration may occur in different circumstances involving different level of participations (inter-universities and intra-universities) that make it difficult to determine the knowledge transfer through the research collaboration. This research examines the co-authorship collaboration pattern as it is believed that co-authorship collaboration directly portraying the knowledge transfer activities of Malaysia RUs aligned with national agenda. This study applies the social network analysis (SNA) as a tool for a proper understanding on how academicians in Malaysia RUs transfer the knowledge and collaborate with each other. By the visualization and tabulation of results, it is found the knowledge transfer activities through research collaboration and co-authorship occurred extensively among researchers affiliated with Malaysian RUs.