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Challenges of Research Collaboration in Ghana’s Knowledge-based Economy

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Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the challenges of research collaboration from the perspective of academic researchers who engage in research collaboration with knowledge users. The study design was descriptive and comprised an explanatory sequential mixed methods approach made up of a survey of a proportionate stratified sample of academic researchers and key informants from two public universities in Ghana. On the basis of responses from 127 academics with collaborative research experience and 11 key informants, it was established through principal component analysis that collective assets, such as lack of common values and trust, followed by structural and positional factors, such as limited funding and inadequate infrastructure, were key challenges of research collaboration. The challenges of research collaboration point to the existence of clash of values between academics and knowledge users and to the absence of comprehensive national and institutional support systems for research collaboration. The persistence of the challenges will widen the knowledge filter in the economy and can eventually result in a Swedish paradox.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the University of Cape Coast (UCC) for sponsoring a Ph.D. study from which this paper was written and the Association of African Universities (AAU) for the award of small grants for theses and dissertations, in the year 2015. We are also grateful to all individuals and institutions that provided support, especially the academic researchers who kindly accepted to participate in the study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Entrepreneurship and Small Enterprise Development (CESED), School of Business, College of Humanities and Legal Studies, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, Ghana

    Mavis Serwah Benneh Mensah & Rosemond Boohene

  2. Faculty of Social Sciences, Institute for Development Studies, College of Humanities and Legal Studies, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, Ghana

    Francis Enu-Kwesi

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  1. Mavis Serwah Benneh Mensah
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  2. Francis Enu-Kwesi
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Correspondence to Mavis Serwah Benneh Mensah.

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This paper is part of a series of publications from an ongoing PhD study.

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Table 5

Table 5 Correlation matrix of the challenges of research collaboration
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Mensah, M.S.B., Enu-Kwesi, F. & Boohene, R. Challenges of Research Collaboration in Ghana’s Knowledge-based Economy. J Knowl Econ 10, 186–204 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13132-017-0450-8

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