In order to better understand the competitiveness of companies and with this their surrounding regions, economic geography and their related disciplines focus on topics, such as knowledge and learning. The article spotlights the acquisition of ‘competencies’ in foreign subsidiaries of multinational manufacturing companies and the necessary preconditions for such acquisition to take place. This topic is one of the most vibrant areas of research in economic geography and more specifically the debate on knowledge and learning, not least because such corporations have become exceptionally important actors in the world economy and thus extraordinarily significant for various regions.