The Not-Invented-Here Syndrome in Academia - How to Measure and Manage it.

Today's society is often described as a "knowledge society". Accordingly, knowledge transfer plays a pivotal role for innovation and economic development. In this light, universities have often been the focus of interest for research and practice in recent years. However, the perspective of the knowledge recipient in this process is very much neglected. Thus, this paper concentrates on the Not-Invented-Here syndrome in academia. We develop a robust measurement model and test this construct and 8 potential antecedents in a structural equation model. The sample consists of 477 German university professors from the natural sciences. We figure out that 4 of the hypotheses find support in the data. Especially, experience and a knowledge sharing-friendly environment help to decrease a potential NIH infection of academic scientists. At the end of the paper, practical implications for industrial managers and university policy-makers are derived. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]