Factors influencing exchange activities in transnational knowledge networks

Abstract

This paper presents selected results from a study of technical, information, and knowledge exchange in Transnational Public Sector Knowledge Networks (TPSKNs). The study contributes to the growing base of theory relating to TPSKNs presented by Dawes, Gharawi, and Burke [7]. It explores the TPSKN formed between the United States Center for Disease Control and the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Health ahead of the 2009 Hajj, one of the largest mass gathering events in the world. Data collected from semi-structured interviews with key participants and a variety of secondary data that were analyzed with an inductive approach to identify and address the impact of the influential factors on attaining the stated goals of the collaboration. The study extends the current knowledge-base regarding TPSKNs into a new transnational context, and a new policy domain, public health. It expands upon the considered contexts to include technological context, central when exchange centers on implementing a new system or adopting an existing system. The study also expands understanding of the influential factors deriving from knowledge and information; organizational; and national layers of context.