ABSTRACT
ABSTRACT: Collaborative knowledge networks come in various shapes and forms, digitally connected or clustered in a particular geographical location. In industry-university collaboration, a new model has emerged with more direct involvement and benefits for universities especially in Business Schools, focussing on managerial and administrative innovation. Yet, little research has been devoted to investigating the role of universities as sources and even co-ordinators of managerial innovations. The most popular among such innovations seem to be those related to IT-enabled enterprise management systems such as CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and SCM (Supply Chain Management) (Roberts, 2007). In SCM, various US universities have established forums and industry consortia with various companies and even government organizations. Such consortia explore new research avenues and bring the industry into the classroom, involving faculty and students in finding solutions to real industry problems of member companies. Since almost every university in the GCC has a Business School, the application of this new collaboration model in GCC universities is pertinent. This paper addresses the issues of transferability and implementation challenges of such university-based knowledge networks in the GCC.
