The effect of technology on learning during the acquisition and development of competencies

A growing body of evidence suggests that distinctive technological competence provide the basis for superior firm performance. However, few, if any, firms possess all the prerequisite competencies required for a given technology-product-market paradigm as they enter that market. This paper explores the different ways in which existing firms develop and intensify competence in response to the changing requirements of industry standard products over time. This paper discovers that technology is an important factor in determining which learning strategies should be employed for competence development.