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The Stage-Gate process is a tool used by innovation managers to rationalize resource allocation the innovation process by breaking the innovation process into different stages, and determining progress and prospects at gates using pre-determined criteria. This study determines the performance impact of investing financial resources relatively heavily in the front-end or early stages of new product development (NPD) projects. Data was collected for NPD projects for one of the largest consumer electronics firms in the world. Investing relative more resources in front end activities positively affects performance. The degree of newness of an NPD project positively moderates this relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We show that contacts in formal, informal and especially multiplex networks explain transfer of innovative knowledge in an organization. The contribution of informal contacts has been much acknowledged, while that of formal contacts did not receive much attention in the literature in recent decades. No study thus far has included both these different kinds of contacts in a firm, let alone considered their combined effect. The exact overlap between formal as well as informal contacts between individuals, forming multiplex or what we call rich ties because of their contribution, especially drives the transfer of new, innovative knowledge in a firm. Studying two cases in very different settings suggests these rich ties have a particularly strong effect on knowledge transfer in an organization, even when controlling for the strength of ties. Some of the effects on knowledge transfer in an organization previously ascribed to either the formal network or the informal network may actually be due to their combined effect in a rich tie. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exchanging knowledge between individuals working in a firm, between but even within divisions, does not occur automatically (Szulanski 1996). It is not obvious that people exchange ideas, point each other to information that the other might use, or give feedback, even when they have no evil motives for not cooperating in such a manner. As a firm's competitive advantage is closely related to its innovative capacity, however, largely based on how it uses knowledge that is already available, the question then is: How does knowledge flow within a firm? What can be done to stimulate or re-direct knowledge flow within a firm? In recent years, increasing attention is given, by scholars in social sciences in general and in management in particular, to the networks of relations between individuals within firms involved in knowledge transfer and development. Consultancies too are scrambling to set up units that can analyze these networks for firms. In addition to the structural issue of who relates how to whom, I will argue that there is a need to look at why relations are established and maintained. This article thus discusses insights from both the literature on social networks and the anthropological literature on gift and favor exchange. As such, the how and the why of knowledge transfer [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Knowledge" takes a central place in economics. This paper shows that the metaphor pervasively used in neoclassical economics to understand knowledge is that of "capital". Taking capital as a metaphor of knowledge introduces problems in neoclassical economic theory, as becomes apparent when economics addresses issues of learning and technological development. Instead, it is argued that economists could learn from what philosophers such as Gilbert Ryle and Michael Polanyi have said about how to understand knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]