Collaborative research: opinions and information technology utilization potential

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, to study collaborative research in general and identify its characteristics, advantages and disadvantages by conglomerating various views and ideas from the literature and from expert opinion research. Second, to determine the importance of and attitudes toward the usage of information technology (IT) in collaborative research projects. Design/methodology/approach - Initially, an extensive literature review and ten in‐depth interviews have been conducted to determine the identifying characteristics of collaborative research. Consequently, a questionnaire is used as the major data collection tool to assess academicians' opinions about collaborative research and attitudes toward IT utilization in such studies. Findings - Collaborative research has been most distinctively defined with the concepts of teamwork, knowledge and experience sharing and direct and continuous communication. Increased visibility and recognition of such projects and enhanced access to various resources have also been pinpointed as important advantages. Academicians have shown a highly positive tendency to utilize IT and adopt IT tools that will enhance convenience and communication and contribute to the conduction of various basic and support processes of collaborative research projects. Research limitations/implications - The major implication of this research is the general need for more collaborative research projects in academia and the necessity to develop and employ various IT tools that can be used in such studies. Similar studies can be done with larger sample sizes or across various contexts, for comparative purposes, to overcome the limitations of the study. Originality/value - In this paper, the dispersed literature about collaborative research has been assembled and a unified scope has been drawn around the concept. Attitudes toward collaborative research and the potential value of utilizing IT in such projects, which has been studied at an inadequate level in the literature, have been evaluated comprehensively from the perspective of academicians.