Section TwoLei and Slocum have concluded the following:
Collaboration may unintentionally open up a
firm’s entire spectrum of core competencies,
technologies, and skills to encroachment and
learning by its partners... Alliances can be used
as an indirect strategic weapon to slowly “deskill”
a partner who does not understand the risks
inherent in such arrangements.^42A prime example where this has occurred is the consumer
electronics industry in which U.S. companies such as
General Electric, RCA, and Zenith held dominant positions in all
skill areas of the industry. Twenty years after their entry into
alliances, virtually no consumer electronics are manufactured in
the United States, while alliance partners have become
dominant in the industry. More significantly, their alliance
partners have used the knowledge gained from these U.S. com-
panies to develop core competencies and take the lead in other
areas such as miniature lasers and sensor systems. The
greatest danger of transferring such skills occurs in situations in
which there is frequent interaction and exchange between the
organizations’ engineering and technical employees. Companies
that have outsourced manufacturing in alliances frequently no
longer have the skills to compete in manufacturing and may be
relegated to marketing the alliance partner’s products. Further,