How do firms perform effective competency development

Summary form only given as follows. A growing body of evidence suggests that distinctive technological competence provide the basis for superior firm performance. However, few if any firm possess all the prerequisite competencies required for a given technology-product-market paradigm as they enter that market. Consequently, firms employ different ways to acquire and develop competencies in response to the changing requirements of industry standard products. This study of 112 different firms in the semiconductor silicon industry suggests that the characteristics of a technology effect the learning method chosen by a firm. The role that ten learning methods have in the acquisition and development stage of a competence is also considered