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Theorizing the Concept of Core Competencies: An Integrative Model beyond

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International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications, Volume 7, Issue 2, February 2017 253
ISSN 2250-3153

Theorizing the Concept of Core Competencies: An

Integrative Model beyond Identification
Hirindu Kawshala

Lecturer (Probationary), Department of Commerce and Financial Management, Faculty of Commerce and Management Studies, University of
Kelaniya, Sri Lanka

Abstract- The multi-dimensional view of Core Competence is

addressed differently by different scholars (Barney, 1991; II. LITERATURE REVIEW
Javidan, 1998; Collins, Smith and Clark, 2005). However, Most importantly, this section will elaborate the core
theoretical basis in this regard is still fragmented. Thus, we constructs addressed in this paper. Simply said, within the
conceptualize the notion of core competencies. Core competence, domain of core competencies; competencies, resources and
resources and competence have been identified as the main capabilities are viewed as topical and indeed the subject domain
constructs of the study. Subsequently, two propositions were exists in a fragmented literature base. Given this, this section
developed and model was constructed based on the literature reviews the seminal works pertaining to the construct of core
reviewed. We postulate, Capabilities, competencies and competencies.
resources are the dimensions of core competencies and identical
core competencies lead to gain a competitive advantage for a Core competencies
firm. Furthermore, competitive advantages usually proceeds to A Core Competency is a concept in management theory
grow a firm. originally advocated by two business authors, (Prahalad &
Hamel, 1990) . In their view a core competency is a specific
factor that a business sees as central to the way the company or
I. INTRODUCTION its employees work. It fulfills three key criteria:

U nlike in the past, the current business competition is well

informed and the battle is fierce. Hence, Henry Ford’s
concept of "You can have any colour as long as it's black” is no
1. It is not easy for competitors to imitate.
2. It can be reused widely for many products and markets.
3. It must contribute to the end consumer's experienced
longer a viable option to addressing the customer needs. benefits and the value of the product or service to its
Companies now require something special in order to fight the customers.
fierce battle among the competitors. This is termed as “Core A core competency can take various forms, including
Competencies”. This is notion is contemporary and topical in technical/subject matter know-how, a reliable process and/or
the field of strategic management (Selznick, 1957; McLagan, close relationships with customers and suppliers. It may also
1983; Thornston, 1992; Spencer, 1993; Prahalad, 1990; Lahti, include product development or culture, such as employee
1999; Barney & Wright, 1998; Mueller, 1996; Porter, 1985; dedication, best Human Resource Management (HRM), good
Zhang, et al., 2002; Wright, et al., 2001; Wernerfelt, 1984; market coverage, or kaizen or continuous improvement over
Ulrich, 1998; Schuler, 1992). time.
The definitions of these scholars will be referenced Core competencies are particular strengths relative to other
throughout the core of the study and will explain the concept of organizations in the industry, which provide the fundamental
core competencies in a broader manner. Therefore, it is vital that basis for the provision of added value. Core competencies reflect
any company differentiates itself from the rest of the competition the collective learning of an organization and involve
through a unique set of skills, commonly referred to as “core coordinating diverse production skills and integrating multiple
competencies”. With today’s competition, knowledge is power streams of technologies. It includes communication,
and having knowledge others do not possess would most involvement, and a deep commitment to working across
certainly give power to one over the rest. Therefore, core organizational boundaries, such as improving cross-functional
competence is considered as one of the main assets an teams within an organization to address boundaries and to
organization could possess. However, although it is considered to overcome them. Few companies are likely to build world
be one of the most important things, scholars in the field have not leadership in more than five or six fundamental competencies.
reached to a consensus in relation to the definition of core A core competency results from a specific set of skills or
competence. Thus, this integrative model development paper production techniques that deliver additional value to the
intends to make a contribution to the existing body of knowledge customer. These enable an organization to access a wide variety
by means of defining what core competency is & introducing a of markets.
new model by amalgamating previous models through reference In an article from 1990 titled "The Core Competence of the
to past document and using a practical approach. Corporation", (Prahalad & Hamel, 1990) illustrate that core
competencies lead to the development of core products which
further can be used to build many products for end users. Core

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competencies are developed through the process of continuous Resources are inputs to a company’s value process and they
improvements over the period of time rather than a single large are the ‘basic units of analysis’ (Grant, 1991). According to
change. To succeed in an emerging global market, it is more (Barney, 1991), Resources are categorized in numerous ways:
important and required to build core competencies rather E.g.: Organizational (culture and reputation) Physical (asset,
than vertical integration. NEC utilized its portfolio of core equipment, location, and plant)
competencies to dominate the semiconductor, Human (manpower, management team, training, and
telecommunications and consumer electronics market. It is experience). According to (Peteraf, 1993), resources are
important to identify core competencies because it is difficult to categorized as tangible and intangible other than above
retain those competencies in a price war and cost-cutting categorization. Resources are also identified as sources for
environment. The author used the example of how to integrate sustainable competitive advantage if they are valuable, rare,
core competences using strategic architecture in view of inimitable, and organization-able (Barney, 1991). Resources are
changing market requirements and evolving technologies. among the most basic elements in a company, and they are
Management must realize that stakeholders to core competences natural objects to study since they are input to a company’s value
are an asset which can be utilized to integrate and build the process (Grant, 1991).
competencies. Competence building is an outcome of strategic
architecture which must be enforced by top management in order Competence
to exploit its full capacity Competence is an assembly of related abilities,
Please note: according to Prahalad & Hamel (1990) commitments, knowledge, and skills that enable a person or an
definition, core competencies are the "collective learning across organization to act effectively in a job or a situation. Competence
the corporation". They can therefore not be applied to the SBU indicates sufficiency of knowledge and skills that enable
and represent resource combination steered from the corporate someone to act in a wide variety of situations. Because each level
level. Because the term "core competence" is often confused with of responsibility has its own requirements, competence can occur
"something a company is particularly good at", some caution in any period of a person's life or at any stage of his or her career.
should be taken not to dilute the original meaning. In other words the capacity of a person to understand a
In competing for the Future, the authors Prahalad (1990) situation and to act reasonably. Disputes regarding the
show how executives can develop the industry foresight competence of an individual are settled by a judge and not by a
necessary to adapt to industry changes and discover ways of professional, although the judge may seek expert opinion before
controlling resources that will enable the company to attain goals delivering at a judgment.
despite any constraints. Executives should develop a point of According to (Henderson & Cockburn, 1994),
view on which core competencies can be built for the future to Competencies are generally separated into 2 categories. They are
revitalize the process of new business creation. Developing an namely, Functional competencies and Integrative competencies.
independent point of view of tomorrow's opportunities and The former are used in daily activities, and the latter to integrate
building capabilities that exploit them is the key to future and develop new competence components.
industry leadership. From a technology perspective, (Danneels, 2002) suggest
For an organization to be competitive, it needs not only that product innovation, facilitated and improved by
tangible resources but intangible resources like core competences competencies, is a driving force of firm renewal. Further, he
that are difficult and challenging to achieve. It is critical to suggests three categories of competencies:
manage and enhance the competences in response to industry • First order - comprise customer
changes in the future. For example, Microsoft has expertise in and technological competencies
many IT based innovations where, for a variety of reasons, it is • Integrative - relate to the ability
difficult for competitors to replicate or compete with Microsoft's to combine first-order competencies
core competences. • Second order - relate to the ability
In a race to achieve cost cutting, quality and productivity, to build first-order competencies.
most executives do not spend their time developing a corporate
view of the future because this exercise demands high According to (Javidan, 1998), Competencies are crucial in
intellectual energy and commitment. The difficult questions may general too, since they play a major part in organizational
challenge their own ability to view the future opportunities but an developments .He has suggested a “Competence Hierarchy”, in
attempt to find their answers will lead towards organizational which the competence concept is of greater value to a company
benefits. than (in decreasing value order) the capability concept and the
resource concept.
Resources
An economic or productive factor required to accomplish an Capabilities
activity or as means to undertake an enterprise and achieve In strategic management, capabilities are perceived as a
desired outcome. Three most basic resources are land, labor, and critical resource of firm performance and at present every firm
capital & other resources include energy, entrepreneurship, strive to be perceived as being capable of doing something than
information, expertise, management and time. Resource is other firms. However, the exact meaning of defining the notion
defined as an input to the value process, found in the basic of capabilities has roots to different conceptual definitions. Collis
activities and processes within a company in which core (1994) stated that the conception of has left been vague in
competencies often form a major part. relation to firm capabilities. Schreyögg & Kliesch-Eberl, (2007)

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asserted that defining the notion of capability is very important capabilities of a firm. Also the term brings the confusion to the
due to the above mentioned differences of conceptualizing relationship between capabilities and competencies (Javidan,
capabilities. Therefore, they view capability as not a mere firm 1998). As a remedy, Javidan (1998) postulated a ‘competence
resource that enhances the performance of other resources such hierarchy’ as a remedy to address the called issues of Prahalad &
as financial, manpower or technology, but rather firm capability Hamel (1990). They asserted that resources lie at the bottom of
is superior means of allocating resources. Furthermore, the hierarchy which acts as a building blocks to firm’s
capabilities addresses complex process of firm such as customer competencies. Adding to this resources definition, Barney (1991)
relationship, product development, or supply chain management postulated three categories of resources for a typical firm. They
(Schreyögg & Kliesch-Eberl, 2007). At the outset, it is important are namely; physical resources, human resources and
to recognize that the distinction between capabilities and assets is organizational resources. Moving along in the competence
not a simple task (Andersen & Kheam, 1998). However, firm hierarchy, Javidan (1998) opinioned that capabilities refer to the
capabilities are argued to be the most important factor in firm’s ability to exploit its resources. He further proposed that
determining firm success Srivastava, et al., (1998)and Bontis & firm capabilities typically includes business processes and
Fitz-enz, (2002). Confirming this Grant, (1996) postulated that routines that acts as the basis to manage the interaction among
success of a firm depends on knowledge or know-how of the firm’s resources. He further defined that a process typically
employees. Similarly Lado, et al., (1992) firm performance have transforms input to an output. Also, capabilities are functionally
a link to expertise, know-how and skills of managers. Meanwhile based (Javidan, 1998). Competencies lies in the third level of the
suggesting the importance of capabilities to a firm McEvily & hierarchy. Precisely, competencies includes co-ordination and
Chakravarthy (2002) suggested that know-how of employees cross functional integration of capabilities of the firm (Javidan,
generates more durable returns than any other resource due to the 1998). He further opinioned that in multi-business corporations,
complexity and tacit nature of the notion. Brush & Chaganti, competencies can be viewed as a set of capabilities vested in a
(1999) asserted that variation in performance is explained by Strategic Business Unit (SBU). Finally, core competence,
capabilities of the firm. Furthermore, Galbreath (2005) write (Javidan, 1998) affirmed that it lies at the higher level of the
since capabilities are embedded to firm experience and learning competence hierarchy. Core competence results from the
it is considered that capabilities are difficult to copy or duplicate interaction of specific SBU competencies.
due to the ‘highest level of causal ambiguity’ (p. 982). Given this detail conceptual definitions of core competence,
Reviewing the above constructs identified, following capabilities, competence and resources proposed by Javidan,
summaries can be developed with seminal works in the domain (1998), the researchers bring another recent highly cited
of strategic management. conceptualizations of the concepts proposed by Ljungquist
(2007). However, Ljungquist (2007) criticize Javidan (1998)
competence hierarchy and emphasized that, competence
III. CONCLUSION MODEL CONSTRUCTION AND PROPOSITION hierarchy apparently reasonable, but definitions of the associated
DEVELOPMENT concepts are not explicitly defined (Ljungquist, 2007). As a
Above table depicts the highly cited works in the domain of remedy, Ljungquist (2007) proposed the core competence model
core competencies. Importantly, Javidan, (1998) postulated that with empirical and conceptual applications to practitioners.
Prahalad & Hamel (1990) conceptualizations of competences, Overall, accepting the conceptualizations of Ljungquist (2007)
capability and core competencies have used as synonymous. we intend to develop a proposition as follows.
Also, Javidan (1998) suggested that, Prahalad & Hamel (1990) Proposition one: Capabilities, competencies and
used these terms as a combination of technological and resources are the dimensions of core competencies and
production skills. Javidan, (1998) opinioned that there are major identical core competencies lead to gain a competitive
problems in Prahalad & Hamel, (1990) conceptualizations of advantage for a firm.
core competencies. Javidan (1998) affirmed that the terms are Proposition two: Competitive advantages usually proceeds to
two narrow and it defines only about the manufacturing grow a firm.

Accordingly, following model is constructed.

Capabilities

Resources Core competencies Competitive

advantage

Competencies

Growth

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[20] Ljungquist, U., 2007. Core competency beyond identification: presentation First Author – Hirindu Kawshala, Lecturer (Probationary) ,
of a model. Management Decision, 45(3), pp. 393-402.
Department of Commerce and Financial Management, Faculty of
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knowledgebased advantage: an empirical test for product performance and Commerce and Management Studies, University of Kelaniya
technological knowledge. Strategic Management Journal, 23(4), p. 285– Sri Lanka, hirindu@kln.ac.lk
305.

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