Leveraging knowledge assets to improve new product development performances

Purpose – Knowledge assets and performance improvement have recently emerged as important and interacting research areas in company business management. The purpose of this research is to highlight the role and relevance of knowledge assets as critical factors for improving the performances of a new product development (NPD) process. Design/methodology/approach – Interpreting the NPD as a knowledge‐based process, the paper presents three case studies which provide empirical evidence of the impact on performance of the assessment and management of the knowledge assets at the basis of NPD process. Findings – The outcomes of the research is a set of managerial implications, useful in order to drive managers towards the design and implementation of knowledge assets management initiatives aimed to support the improvement of the NPD performances. Originality/value – Through an integration of the results of the inductive research, based on multiple case studies, with the main findings taken from a literature review, the paper addresses managerial implications for improving NPD process performances by developing knowledge asset value drivers.