英國華威大學服務管理留學生畢業dissertation寫作-Core competence

 

Porter (1985) use value chain to reflect the value added activities of enterprises, he (Porter, 1985) takes service as one of five basic activities of enterprises’ value creation. Since processing and manufacturing link in value chain can be imitated easily, and service link, especially research & development, design, marketing, after-sales service, etc. can not be imitated easily, which enables companies to obtain a differentiated competitive advantage of a long period of time, therefore now more and more manufacturing enterprises are through servitization strategy to extend value chain to gain competitive advantage, so as to improve product value (Baines et al., 2010). Their value chain takes processing and manufacturing link as a starting point, extending to R&D, marketing and other service links. Manufacturing enterprises extend their value chain, at the same time, they also need to enhance their related core competencies to ensure that they can be successful in R&D, marketing, resource integration and other aspects (Edwards, 2011; Priem &. Butler, 2011), thus it is necessary for manufacturing enterprises to build their own core competitiveness according to their specific servitization strategy.

 

Definition of core competence

Clardy (2008) defined core competence as the combination of a range of complementary skills and knowledge within an organization, it has the ability to make one or more businesses to achieve first-class level of competition in the field. Hobday, Davies and Prencipe (2005) mentioned that core competence is composed of insight and foresight ability, as well as frontline execution ability. Hobday, Davies and Prencipe (2005) believe that insight and foresight ability mainly comes from scientific and technical knowledge, unique data, creativity of products, excellent analytical and reasoning ability; frontline execution capability is most frontline staff’s work quality. Core competence is an enterprise's overall resources, it involves the enterprise’s technology, human resources, management, culture, cohesion and other aspects, it is the common behavior of the enterprise’s all departments and employees (Kusunoki, Nonaka & Nagata, 1998). Melián-González et al. (2010) analyzed that the accumulation of core competence lies in creating a learning organization, constantly increasing an enterprise’s specialized assets, as well as inimitable tacit knowledge in cultivation. 

 

Types of core competence

First type is the core competence based on cultural view. Hobday, Davies and Prencipe (2005) believed that in an enterprise, the valuable organizational culture which is difficult to be completely emulated is the company's most important core competence, they stressed that core competence is inherent in the corporate culture of an enterprise, reflecting in many aspects of the enterprise, including skills and knowledge. Kusunoki, Nonaka and Nagata (1998) also suggested that core competence exist in the form of knowledge in all aspects of corporate capabilities.

 

Second type is the core competence based on resource-based view. Clardy (2008) stressed that access to those potentially valuable resource is the basis of success of an enterprise, these resources are the basic conditions to ensure an enterprise to continuously obtain excess profits. Clardy (2008) believed that in acquiring a strategic resource, the differences in decision-making and processes between different enterprises constitute the core competence of enterprises. Only when an enterprise has access to strategic resources, can it have a unique position in the industry, this status comes from its unique capabilities in the process of resource identification, accumulation, storage and activation.

Third type is the core competence based on view of technology. Dutrénit (2004) thought that the difference in innovative capacity and technological levels between companies is the root cause for heterogeneity of an enterprise. Lowe, George, and Alexy (2012) suggested that core competence is an enterprise’s capacity in R&D, manufacture and production, as well as marketing, and this ability has direct impact on corporate performance.

 

Forth type is the core competence based on systematic view. Hobday, Davies and Prencipe (2005) held that core competence is to provide companies with various skills based on competitiveness and competitive advantage, organic combination of complementary assets and operating mechanism in particular operation. A company's true core competencies are organic combination of its core technical competencies, core organizational competencies and core cultural competencies.

 

Characteristics of core competence

About the connotation of core competence, there are different interpretations from different angles. Although the understanding for the concept of core competence varies, the understanding for the characteristics on the core competence is almost the same. Core competence is the source of sustainable competitive advantage of an enterprise. Core competence has characteristics of at least three aspects.

Core competence helps to achieve the value that customers emphasize. Core competence can achieve the value that customers pay special attention to, the reason for why a capability is the core lies in that the benefits that it brings consumers should be crucial (Clardy, 2008).

 

Core competence is difficult for competitors to imitate and substitute, and therefore it is able to obtain a competitive advantage. Core competence are reasons for an enterprise to be different from its competitors, it is also the reasons for an enterprise to do better than its competitors. Therefore, core competence has a unique value for enterprises, customers, it special contributes to enterprises’ winning and maintaining a competitive advantage (Kusunoki, Nonaka & Nagata, 1998).

 

Core competence is persistent, it maintains the continuity of competitive advantage of an enterprise, core competence takes a core position in an enterprise’s creating value and reducing costs, core competence should be able to significantly improve the operational efficiency of enterprises (Kusunoki, Nonaka & Nagata, 1998).#p#分頁標題#e#