Research collaboration participation model in Malaysia research university

Abstract

E-collaboration tool assist research team in conducting research collaboration in an online environment and produce better research outcomes, in which it can increase communication among non-collocated researchers, escalate quality of access to information and help to coordinate work more efficiently. However, previous researches indicate that not all researchers are keen to participate in e-collaboration and disinclined to migrate from traditional research practices and facilities to the current e-collaboration research environments. The resistances on the part of the user to participate in e-collaboration are dependent on the user’s behavior in making decision to participate as well as to the functions of technology provided. Various reasons for the occurrence of this barriers have been identified: the gap between the needs of the community practice and the actual service provided by e-collaboration tools, trust issues, lack of peer support, lack of motivation and technology reliability. To address the problem, this study investigated the factors that influence the research collaboration participation from the perspectives of e-collaboration and knowledge sharing behavior, in which the proposed participation model integrates the e-collaboration and knowledge sharing behavior factors with the input factors from Collaborative Work Model. Based from the study, several factors that influence research collaboration participation have been identified: self-motivation for research, collaboration technology experience, identification trust, peer support, superior influence, communication, social presence, awareness and cooperation. In addition, the result also illustrates that participation in e-collaboration is found to have significant effect on research performance and satisfaction on research output. To validate the model, a quantitative approach is used by conducting a survey among researchers (208 respondents) from research universities in Malaysia. The survey data was then analyzed using a partial least square structural equation modeling technique. The result of the research illustrates that the proposed research collaboration participation model can be utilized to enhance the e-collaboration tools whereby it can assist in conducting research in online environments.