While this comes from the school of "well, duh, of course", it does serve to make explicit the value of dealing with people who are well-connected to ideas, concepts, and people within a certain field (we used to hire for expertise, today, it makes more sense to hire based on how connected they are to the field). Understanding productivity in the Information Age: "...researchers found that information workers whose strong e-mail networks allow them to receive new information sooner than their peers — or to receive more pieces of new information — are likely to be more productive than their less well-connected counterparts. Workers who are “information hubs” complete more projects in a given period of time and thus generate more revenue for their firm."
I like the idea being expressed, but I'm a bit disappointed in what appears to be a narrow research focus (e-mail networks? Hello, 1998) and vagueness in reporting results ("likely be more productive").