Addressing Social Innovation in the Malaysian University- Industry-Community Knowledge Transfer Partnership: A Preliminary Empirical Insight

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to give a preliminary empirical insight on the potential impactof strategic knowledge management processes, i.e. knowledge creation, knowledgetransfer and knowledge application, on social innovation as a new innovation outcomestrategy within the Malaysian university-industry-community knowledge transferpartnership. Based on survey of relevant literatures and the gaps discovered, a researchframework is then proposed. The processes of knowledge creation, knowledge transferand knowledge application is proposed as independent variables. Social innovation is thedependent variable of the study. The preliminary empirical data was generated throughstructured questionnaires. The project leaders of the selected samples of Malaysianuniversity-industry-community knowledge transfer partnership projects were chosen toanswer the questionnaires distributed. The findings of this study show that all variablesitems are well above the acceptable level of construct reliability which is determinedby the Cronbach’s Alpha value. Furthermore, the descriptive analysis also shows thatrespondents were consistent in their responses to the measurement items used as theindependent and dependent variables in the framework of this study.