An empirical investigation of firm public and private knowledge

Many studies examine firm private knowledge, but purport to be generalizable to the totally, Of firm knowledge, both public and private. This study, demonstrates that public and private firm knowledge are empirically separable constructs that have significant and yet different influences on innovative outcomes. The example of product development effectiveness within this study shows that both public and private knowledge are significantly, related to product development quality; however, public knowledge is negatively related to quality lapses while private knowledge is positively, related to quality lapses. Copyright (C) 2002 John Wiley Sons, Ltd.