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Academia and industry are major actors in the knowledge economy. The contributions these actors make to the knowledge economy is largely constrained by resource scarcities. Such resource scarcity is more pronounced for the two actors I focus on in this dissertation, start-ups and academic scientists. First, mainly due to a lack of revenue streams, high-technology start-ups seek funding to fuel their research activities from outside sources, such as governmental subsidies, venture capital and business. However, the uncertainty surrounding embryonic inventions as well as complex regulatory environments create information asymmetries between these firms and the potential financers that make investment decisions a difficult task. Second, academics source their research funding generally from the public. They do so generally primarily by submitting research proposals to funding agencies. However, fund raising is challenging as knowing where possible funding opportunities exist and being able to submit competitive research proposals requires tacit knowledge that is difficult to get access to. Because resource acquisition is one of the main drivers for knowledge production for academics and start-ups alike, the aim of this dissertation is to ‘Investigate how resource constrained start-up firms and researchers in the knowledge economy can gain access to resources in order to innovate and advance science’. In chapters 2 and 3, we propose that having access to knowledgeable colleagues who provide direction and feedback leads to fund acquisition success for academics. We identify knowledgeable colleagues via the National Science Foundation’s rotation program under which the NSF employs academics, called rotators, on loan from their university, to lead peer reviews. Crafting a number of novel longitudinal datasets that compare similar academics in departments with and without a rotator we reveal that having access to a rotator doubles the funding acquisition record of young or