Abstract
M.Com. (Business Management)
The complex nature of problems that the world is currently facing necessitates the emergence of new ways of producing knowledge relevant for dealing with these challenges. These challenges are multi-faceted and must be broken down into a variety of components as well as serially managed in order to ensure that a suitable plan of action can be formulated. A key aspect of dealing with these complex issues is through the integration of knowledge from a variety of disciplinary sources. Higher education institutions, through research, have the capability to elucidate the necessary disciplinary options from which these issues can be resolved. One approach that can be exploited in academia is transdisciplinary research. Transdisciplinary research integrates the best available knowledge sources and creates a platform from which researchers can create ownership of the problems and provide options for solving them. With this in mind, strategies that enhance transdisciplinary at academic institutions have become essential. One such strategy that can be employed is coopetition. Coopetition is a strategy that combines both cooperation and competition. This strategy is derived from the belief that competitors can benefit from one another if they collaborate and eliminates the traditional mindset that deters competitors from working together. However, before coopetition can be formalised, it is important to identify whether researchers are willing to adopt the behaviour required for it. Thus, this research, using the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) model, aims to identify whether researchers possess the behavioural intent towards the adoption of coopetition, which can foster a culture of transdisciplinary research. The study elaborates on the attitudes, norms and perceived self-efficacy of actively engaged researchers from two higher education institutions (one private, the other public) in South Africa. The attitudes, norms and perceived self-efficacy were then used to compute a behavioural intent score. The analysis occurred on two levels: within the institution, and across institutions. The results revealed that actively engaged researchers at these two institutions possess a moderately high likelihood of engaging in coopetitive relationships despite the extent to which individuals are influenced by norms being low. This study concludes with suggestions of future research with regards to enhancing coopetition and transdisciplinary research.