Technology marketing: a firm's core competence?

For the last three decades global competition has dramatically changed. Formerly dominating firms from the Triad are facing competition from nearly all over the world. Due to an unprecedented exponential growth of global knowledge production and consumption, no longer firms do rely on go-it-alone strategies. Rather, firms have become proficient in sourcing technologies that are either state of the art or non-available inside their boundaries or they have intensified their activities regarding the external commercialisation of knowledge (mainly technological knowledge). This paper discusses the major drivers and challenges regarding the processes of knowledge acquisition and knowledge exploitation. And it introduces some of the instruments firms will have to master to compete in the global economy of the 21st century.