High technology organizations benefit from collaborative contributions of current customers, lead users, and major suppliers. New knowledge from these stake holders propel firms to push technology competence for new product development. However, collaborations with these entities may also negatively impact the firm's technology competence. Using data collected from high technology manufacturers, a model is tested which analyzes both curvilinear and linear influences on competence. Results support the curvilinear influence of lead user collaboration on technology competence, as well as positive linear influences of customer and supplier collaboration. Subsequently, we find technology competence has a positive influence on firm performance.