A typology of Collaboration Modes for Scientific and Technological Knowledge Production and Sharing

Abstract

This paper suggests a typology of the modes of collaboration for scientific and technological knowledge production and sharing (STKPS) based on knowledge communication types, including organizational factors, communication channel, intensity, and decision-making, that affect STKPS processes. It is mainly designed to rearrange ideas about collaboration drawn from the literature in order to develop a conceptual framework for categorizing modes of collaboration based on how communication patterns shape four modes of collaboration. In the conclusion and discussion part, practical implications, limitations of this study, and further studies are discussed. In particular, the practical implications propose communication patterns suitable for five stages of collaboration processes. As the collaboration initiation or set-up stage is critical, extensive face-to-face communication is recommended in the auditing stage. In the execution stage, media-based communication can be actively utilized, because collaborators will mostly exchange explicit codified knowledge supported by IT. The evaluation and reinforcement stages concentrate on tacit knowledge exchange and explicit knowledge evaluation, which requires intensive face-to-face communication including negotiations for evaluating collaboration outcomes and partnership.