About
Publication Information
Subscriptions
Permissions
Advertising
Journal Rankings
Best Article Award
Press Releases
Resources
Access Options
Submission Guidelines
Reviewer Guidelines
Sample Articles
Paper Calls
Contact Us
Submit & Review
Browse
Current Issue
All Issues
Featured
Latest
Topics
Videos
Cases
Subscribe
California Management Review
California Management Review is a premier academic management journal published at UC Berkeley
Search
Article Information
Multi-Technology Corporations: Why They Have 'Distributed' Rather than 'Distinctive Core' Competencies
Granstrand, Ove , Pari Patel, and Keith Pavitt
39
/
4
(
Summer
1997
):
8
-
25
The world's largest, technologically active firms are more diversified in their technological competencies than in their product range, and this diversity is increasing over time. These firms invest beyond their distinctive core technological competencies in order to manage and co-ordinate technical change with their suppliers of components, equipment, and materials as well as to explore and assess the major new opportunities emerging from the knowledge base. A firm's technological competencies are "distributed" among technological fields, among different parts of the corporation, and among different corporate objectives. As a consequence, corporate policies that apply to products do not apply to technological competencies. Corporate performance can be significantly improved with increasing technological diversity.