This project will create a research coordination network to develop lasting collaborations among scholars from a variety of disciplines (e.g., economics, management, and sociology) who study the creation and transfer of knowledge and the implications of these processes for individual and organizational outcomes. While a significant amount of research has been done in the area, the broad field of inquiry is fragmented into multiple distinct groups, with some researchers adopting an "organization-focus" and considering knowledge creation and transfer within and across organizations, while others have adopted an "individual-focus" emphasizing the life scientists and a third group has adopted a "group-focus" investigating knowledge transfer among interacting teams. Through the formation of network clusters focused around four common themes and a series of workshops and conferences, this research coordination network will help bridge the boundary or disconnect between these multiple "invisible colleges" and make researchers more aware of theoretical arguments and research findings developing outside of their school. The research coordination network would encourage boundary-spanning interactions that are likely to result in novel research projects and initiatives that will enable development of a more complete view of the interplay between institutional factors such as intellectual property rights and individual factors such as motivations and incentives that affect the creation of scientific knowledge, its diffusion and potential commercialization and use.
Understanding the creation and transfer of knowledge is of great importance both to the scientific community and to nurturing a national innovation ecosystem that will enhance national competitiveness and security. Scholarly research is currently fragmented so could benefit greatly from integration and an integrated view can guide both national policy and organizational practice and the ability to create and transfer knowledge is a distinct source of competitive advantage. Indeed, as the half-life of products and even entire product categories has decreased, the ability to create and transfer knowledge has become even more important because both factors shape a firm's ability to improve existing products and work routines and to develop new products and work routines. Research coordinated by the network would improve our ability to manage the production and distribution of knowledge within and between organizations. Scientists and women in particular, must overcome a significant number of barriers as they attempt to commercialize their ideas. Research that combines organizational and individual factors could shed light on how best to overcome those barriers in particular and to knowledge creation and transfer in general. New projects encouraged by the network could prove particularly valuable for life scientists and the large number of people who benefit from their ideas and innovations.
