Issues in managing policy driven inter organisational networks: perspectives from Malaysia's multimedia super corridor flagship projects

Public sector policy makers and managers internationally have developed a growing interest in the concept of networks (Goodwin et al, 2004). In Malaysia, as part of the government driven Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC Malaysia) project, several inter-organisational networks were formed as private sector organisations were invited to collaborate with public sector organisations in projects under the MSC flagship applications formed to help kick start the MSC cluster project. The project itself is a policy driven Information and Communications Technology (ICT) cluster oriented initiative by the Government of Malaysia aimed at jumpstarting its transition to a knowledge-based economy. One of the key aspects of the MSC flagships is that both the foreign and local organisations work closely with the respective government organisations to develop innovative solutions for a given task. For this, the basic reward is the monetary incentive but the more critical benefit is supposed to be the exchange of knowledge among the organisations participating in the MSC flagships. Twelve years since they have been formed, based on reports and discussions, the MSC flagships seem to have had mixed successes in terms of achieving the various projects objectives. Thus, it was felt that a study of the MSC flagships was warranted and it would provide interesting insights into the subject of managing inter-organisational networks, particularly involving multinationals, domestic enterprises and government organisations.