Knowledge-sharing restrictions in the life sciences : personal and context-specific factors in academia–industry knowledge transfer

Gerbin, Ani (author), Drnovšek, Mateja (author)

Purpose – Knowledge sharing in research communities has been considered indispensable to progress in science. The aim of this paper is to analyze the mechanisms restricting knowledge sharing in science. It considers three categories of academia–industry knowledge transfer and a range of individual and contextual variables as possible predictors of knowledge-sharing restrictions. Design/methodology/approach – A unique empirical data sample was collected based on a survey among 212 life science researchers affiliated with universities and other non-profit research institutions. A rich descriptive analysis was followed by binominal regression analysis, including relevant checks for the robustness of the results. Findings – Researchers in academia who actively collaborate with industry are more likely to omit relevant content from publications in co-authorship with other academic researchers; delay their coauthored publications, exclude relevant content during public presentations; and deny requests for access to their unpublished and published knowledge. Practical implications – This study informs policymakers that different types of knowledge-sharing restrictions are predicted by different individual and contextual factors, which suggests that policies concerning academia–industry knowledge and technology transfer should be tailored to contextual specificities. Originality/value – This study contributes new predictors of knowledge-sharing restrictions to the literature on academia–industry interactions, including outcome expectations, trust and sharing climate. This study augments the knowledge management literature by separately considering the roles of various academic knowledge-transfer activities in instigating different types of knowledge-sharing restrictions in scientific research.

• Language: English
• Keywords: knowledge, knowledge transfer, universities, industry, knowledge sharing, life sciences, restrictions, academia–industry
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: EF - School of Economics and Business
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2020
• Number of pages: Str. 1533-1557
• Numbering: Vol. 24, no. 7
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-117600
• UDC: 005.3
• ISSN on article: 1367-3270
• DOI: 10.1108/JKM-11-2019-0651
• COBISS.SI-ID: 22337795
• Publication date in RUL: 17.07.2020

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Journal of knowledge management
• Shortened title: J. knowl. manag.
• Publisher: Emerald
• ISSN: 1367-3270
• COBISS.SI-ID: 20511749

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: znanje, prenos znanja, univerze, industrija