Core Competence Matters: Preparing for a New Agenda Acta Wexionensia No 121/2007 Business Administration Core Competence Matters: Preparing for a New Agenda

The core competence concept describes how large companies can prosper and achieve competitive advantage. It is a well-known concept in the strategy domain, frequently practiced in organizations and cited in the lit-erature. Despite this, recent research indicates that in-depth understanding of the concept is scarce. In this thesis, a few shortcomings of the concept are recognized: The vagueness of the original definition, divergence of the existing literature, and invalid appliance. Straightforward core competence identification and verification proc-esses are put forward, applicable to both research and practice. The proc-esses aim at advancing beyond mere identification. Three different core competencies were identified and verified in the empirical part of this thesis. The core competencies were possible to separate through differences in the various influences from competencies, capabilities and resources. The core competencies were also possible to arrange in a complexity continuum, from a compound and highly inte