Core technological competence and growth strategies of corporations

Summary form only as given. The ability of a manufacturing enterprise to gain competitive advantage is a function of its technological core competence. This paper examines the process used by large corporations to build technological competence by establishing "a multitude of new co-productive relationships in the form of alliances, joint ventures, outsourced subcontracting, etc." A resource based view of technological competence is developed. The problems of integrating discrete technological competence are studied in the context of the acquisition of NCR by AT&T and Lotus Development Corporation by IBM.