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This paper aims to investigate and provide insights on knowledge-based urban development (KBUD) in the context of emerging economies. KBUD has been an effective strategy and an opportunity for emerging economies for catching up with the developed economies.

The paper scrutinizes the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) of Malaysia by focusing on the planning, development and orchestration of the knowledge corridor.

The paper reveals a number of lessons and insights drawn from the development of MSC as the largest manifestation of the KBUD initiative in Malaysia.

The paper provides lessons and recommendations on the planning, development and management of KBUD for emerging economies that are seeking a prosperous development.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the antecedents of successful organizational cross-border knowledge transfer and also the relationship among the antecedents for sustainable competitive advantage.

First, a focus group study was conducted to identify major constructs and map out the proposed framework. This is then followed by questionnaire survey from 210 Malaysian multimedia super corridor (MSC) status corporations as recipients. Their international business affiliates refer to any organizations located outside Malaysia with which the recipient firm has a relationship. Data were analysed using SPSS.

The findings suggest that the perceived value of the knowledge, relational dimension and cognitive dimension, as well as recipient learning intent and the attractiveness of a foreign source are significant related to the effectiveness of organizational cross-border knowledge transfer.

Because this research only covered 210 MSC status corporations, future research can try to have more coverage on other industry to have larger sample size for generalizability purposes. Other factors such as organizational and context characteristics can be added as antecedents to strengthen the framework for effective knowledge transfer.

The empirical findings can be used as a guideline for MSC status firms to undergo a self-check and help them rethink and reposition themselves in light of the findings. It helps MSC status corporations to frame their organizational cross-border knowledge transfer activities to enable the creation and application of knowledge which should allow them to drive the capability of creating and retaining a greater value onto their core business competencies.

This study provides valuable insights to help creating a successful foundation for organizational cross-border knowledge transfer. This study is also among few studies to examine the critical antecedents in successful organizational cross-border knowledge transfer from a multidimensional perspective in Malaysia.

The Malaysian Government through the interventionist stance created an enabling environment for SMEs. Deliberate efforts for economic development started in the form of Industrial Estates and Export Processing Zones since early 1990s. This paper is a brief account of government efforts and its result for cluster development, in the light of recent literature. It is found that despite consistent efforts, the Malaysian answer to Silicon Valley – Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) – could not become an industrial cluster in a strict manner of the term used in the industrial cluster literature. This review highlights an array of bottlenecks that impede the competitiveness of MSC. The critical observation is that the SME firms in this “constructed cluster” are not enjoying the benefits of co-location externalities rather consider government’s financial support as an important factor affecting their co-location decision. In the absence of the significant qualitative research in the Malaysian cluster milieu, the purpose of this paper is the unique attempt to compile the previous results of significant work on the MSC and proposes future directions of research on policy-led clusters.

This paper synthesized and arranged most recent literature on economic development efforts made by Malaysian Government. Furthermore, it highlights the issues faced by policy-led cluster of MSC.

There is scant research on policy-led clusters like MSC where government plays an instrumental role from conception of this ICT cluster to development of programs and initiatives for the sustainability of it. However, the review of recent studies indicates that MSC faces some limitations to perform as cluster. There is a strong evidence that firms are not enjoying the benefits of clustering rather are attracted toward the financial incentives offered by the government in return of the firms co-location decision.

The theoretical contribution of the review is that it signals the scarcity of both breadth and depth of literature on policy-driven cluster. Although, few notable attempts indicated how cluster initiatives influence the clusters, yet various dimensions need to be explored in order to reach the conclusive findings. The current review provides a strong foundation for further empirical research. For example, the other possible avenues could be, cluster evaluation practices in policy-led clusters; enablers and barriers to innovation in policy-led clusters; development of comprehensive indicators for principled engagement, shared motivation and joint actions in collaborative initiative development and the relational dimension of networks like technological distance between the focal firms and local SMEs.

The review highlights that government agencies and the firms in the policy-led clusters perceive the cluster initiatives differently. For government an initiative may be a success but for firms it may be just eyewash. This perceptual difference can disrupt the government efforts for this cluster. Firms are dependent on Multimedia Development Corporation. They consider themselves as a guest in the cluster and expect that government will provide everything. Mere presence/attendance of firms in the programs may not indicate the effectiveness of the initiative.

The prime objective of the review was to highlight an array of bottlenecks that impede the competitiveness of MSC to become an ICT cluster. Since there is a dearth of significant qualitative research in the Malaysian cluster milieu particularly with respect to cluster initiatives taken in MSC, this review therefore is a unique attempt that compiles the previous results of significant work on a policy-driven MSC (ICT cluster) and proposes future direction of research on policy-led clusters.

This paper aims to argue that the World Bank‐sanctioned strategy of investing in knowledge economy infrastructure will not make a developing country competitive in the highest value activities such as research, design and innovation.

The paper examines Malaysia's efforts to increase its national income and change its position from a “middle‐income” country to one with a standard of living equivalent to a developed country by 2020. Specifically, it analyses Malaysia's strategy of constructing a multimedia super corridor, a multibillion‐dollar state‐led project to attract knowledge‐intensive operations to Malaysia.

Despite the creation of a world‐class infrastructure, the Malaysian government has not been successful in realising its original aim of creating a cutting‐edge multimedia research and development hub. Instead a thriving business support services sector has developed. Therefore, it is by no means a guaranteed way to close the gap between rich and poor nations.

Official data relating to the activities of firms not only are limited but also have been made problematic by changes in categorisation over the relevant years. Analysis that is more conclusive requires the publication of official data with greater detail about firm activities and a standardised reporting format over time.

This is one of the first academic studies discussing the rise of the business services industry in Malaysia and its relationship with the MSC infrastructure development project.

This paper aims to investigate to what extent knowledge inflows have taken place among professional Malaysian workforces and what the significant employee‐related factors of knowledge transfer are. The development of technology parks at Technology Park Malaysia (TPM), Kulim High Tech Park (KHTP) and Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) is the focus of the discussion.

Data were collected through a self‐administered survey to 300 local professionals; and 51 percent responded. A multiple regression was used to identify the significant determinants of transfer of knowledge.

Knowledge transfer from foreign expatriate, parent and peer subsidiary companies to local professionals is at a moderate level. The overall multiple regression shows that workplace learning, personal time management, symptom of replication, adaptation and innovation, and work experience significantly contribute to the transferring of expertise to local professional employees.

The success of companies in today's competitive economy lies more in their knowledge and intellectual capital rather than other resources. Therefore, transferring new knowledge from foreign multinational corporations (MNCs) to local workforces is a basic step for future sustainable competitive advantage. Empirical evidence from previous research shows that information and communication technology can facilitate the transfer of knowledge. This is not covered in this study.

Training mechanisms must be designed in such a way to promote in‐plant training or employee attachment at the parent company or foreign peer subsidiaries.

The paper shows that the success of knowledge transfer depends on the absorptive capacity, the organizational learning climate and the willingness of foreign expatriates in multinational corporations to transfer knowledge. This is an empirical indication of knowledge inflows within Malaysian technology parks, which is a relatively new topic to be explored.

Information technology has led to rapid and dynamic changes in the way government and business operate. The introduction of computers helps government administration in achieving efficiency and adding value to the conduct of government business transaction. The Malaysian Government has taken a pragmatic approach to the advancement of information technology by establishing a mega Electronic Government (EG) project in the form of a Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) amidst the legacy systems. This paper seeks to demonstrate the nature of the EG initiatives and the legacy systems and discusses how the National Archives of Malaysia responded to the mounting pressure to address records management problems associated with the legacy systems and the EG.

The purpose of this paper is to build upon Chen et al.'s work by investigating inter‐organizational knowledge transfer needs and practices among small and medium enterprises (SMEs) which have received relatively little research attention to date.

A questionnaire survey was conducted on SMEs which have been accorded the Multimedia Super Corridor Malaysia status. Data were analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences.

In total, nine important areas have been the focus of this study, i.e. the importance of external knowledge; the extent to which external knowledge is more important than internal knowledge to organizational success; areas in which insufficient knowledge contributes to costly errors or mistakes in the SMEs; SMEs' involvement in knowledge transfer activities; number of social networks involved; SMEs' perceptions about networks; use of tools and technologies to transfer inter‐organizational knowledge; constraints of inter‐organizational knowledge transfer; and SMEs' effectiveness in leveraging knowledge. The data collected from 70 owners/managers of SMEs suggest that to some extent external knowledge is believed to be an important need by the enterprises.

The small sample size raises the question of generalizability of the findings.

Overall, the empirical findings point to the need for the SMEs to pursue inter‐organizational knowledge transfer practices.

This paper is one of the first to address the inter‐organizational knowledge transfer needs in Malaysian SMEs.

The purpose of this paper is to study the application of knowledge management (KM) factors on customer relationship management (CRM) process in Malaysian Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) status organisations.

A questionnaire survey was conducted on KM workers (customer service) in Malaysian MSC status organisations. Based on the extensive review of the current literature, eight KM factors were investigated to examine the application toward CRM process.

The data, collected from 96 knowledge workers, suggest that KM process, organisational infrastructure and technology are three important predictors for effective CRM process.

The practical implication of this paper could be useful for business managers who want to enhance organisational CRM through implementing KM practices to support their organisation’s KM efforts.

This is one of the few papers to study the application of KM factors on CRM process in Malaysia.

The purpose of this paper is to validate an instrument for the Ghoshal and Bartlett model and operationalize its four attributes into a multidimensionality instrument questionnaire. This study operationalizes the four attributes, namely, discipline, support, trust and stretch, into a multidimensionality instrument questionnaire and tests this instrument's validation using data from 317 Malaysian Multimedia Super Corridor-status companies.

This paper follows the procedures of building a scale measure. This was carried out in three main stages. The first stage is the generation of scale items. The purpose of this stage is to identify and analyze items based on intensive literature review. The second stage is the assessment of face validity to ensure the correspondence between the individual items and the constructs intended to measure. The final stage is the statistical validation, which includes the assessment of validity and reliability of the introduced instrument.

The paper introduces 23 multidimensional questionnaire items, which contribute to organizational context dimensions. The statistical analysis that followed the conceptual development shows that the presented instrument has good psychometric properties. The validity and reliability of the scale were presented and discussed.

This paper suggests that these organizational context dimensions can be investigated with a high degree of confidence, especially when applied to organizations with different climate. To improve the robustness of the model, additional testing in different contexts and cultures may be necessary. Future research may also test the validity of the instrument using larger sample data.

The measure offers researchers a comprehensive and flexible approach to the assessment of organizational context and collective learning from a managerial action perspective. This measure may be useful for a broad range of research interests, enabling researchers to investigate some theoretical propositions related to managerial action, such as the relationship between organizational climate and organizational performance. The measure also helps to establish the relationship between organizational context and collective learning in the organization.

This study helps to fill the gap in the development of the organizational climate through both conceptual and empirical work. There is therefore a need for a measured, testable instrument to facilitate the empirical evaluation by the modern organization. This measure also contributes toward a better understanding of the managerial role. This managerial role has an imperative role in crafting the behavior of the organization’s members, developing collective learning through distributed initiatives and mutual cooperation.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the key leadership characteristics (in the form of social power) needed in a knowledge‐based firm that can influence knowledge workers (KWs) to participate actively in creating, sharing, and using knowledge.

Data measuring top leaders social power and knowledge management (KM) practices is gathered from 402 KWs representing 180 Multimedia Super Corridor status firms in Malaysia.

The analysis indicates that expert power has a positive influence on the extent of knowledge acquisition and dissemination practices. Legitimate power is found to impede knowledge acquisition practices. Furthermore, reliance on referent power no longer works in a knowledge‐based context. Finally, the paper found the impact of coercive, legitimate, and reward power to be contingent on the organizational size.

Besides leaders potential to influence, there may be other factors that could influence the extent of KM practices in organization. Further, this paper explores the power of top management, which could not be generalized to leaders from middle or lower level management. Future research should address these limitations.

The paper implies that knowledge leaders need to enhance certain bases of power that have the potential to improve the extent of KM practices in organizations.

This paper provides useful insights about the significance of leaders' power bases with emphasis on new approaches needed in knowledge‐based organizations.