Leadership in Knowledge Sharing: Creating Value through Collaboration

This study aims to understand the antecedents of knowledge sharing behavior amongst tenant firms in Science and Technology Parks (STPs) which has been highlighted as a key factor for the development of an epistemic culture of innovation in STPs. Components of a model of knowledge management leadership with a focus on knowledge sharing and innovative value creation in STPs are developed inspired by the work of Nonaka, Nahapiet and Ghoshal, Guns and others. Collection of data on various relevant measures is ongoing, covering technology firms and STPs in Singapore and other Asian countries. Besides outlining model components and hypotheses, tentative findings of qualitative interviews and survey work (with a focus on KM leadership in Singapore’s STPs) are presented aimed at identifying strategic ingredients for the creation of intelligent STPs with a conducive culture of R&D works and innovation as well as synergistic collaboration between tenant firms. 1. Knowledge Creation through Science & Technology Parks: Issues and Challenges The construction of an effective and innovative culture of knowledge production or ‘knowledge habitat’ is seen by many as a crucial precondition for the creation of new knowledge and product/service innovations (Keeble et al. 1999; Koh, Koh and Tschang 2004, Menkhoff et al. 2005). As Schrage (1997:173) puts it, it takes shared space to create shared understandings and hence to generate new knowledge, e.g. through the combination of various knowledge resources and competencies via knowledge transfer (Nonaka 1995; Ensign and Hebert 2003). In the case of Singapore, administrators, policy planners and technocrats have been proactive in promoting an ‘innovative milieu’ and conducive R&D environment in certain spaces and areas. A prominent example is the Singapore Science Park, a specific state-initiated corporate entity to boost R&D in Singapore. Its origin can be traced back to the late 1970s when policy-makers and planners started to discuss the need for a national R&D programme and a more conducive R&D environment aimed at giving Singapore’s industrialization a further boost and to enhance the country’s competitiveness in an increasingly global economy (Rodan 1989). The successful development of the Jurong industrial zone (as vehicle for export-led growth) served as role model (Phillips and Yeung 2003:714). The park was set up in 1980 “as a place where R&D can converge and create synergies with institutions and firms alike, and researchers can work anytime, meet and share ideas” (NSTB spokesman interviewed by Phillips and Yeung 2003:715).