Title: An integrated core competence evaluation framework for portfolio management in the oil industry

Authors: Khalid Hafeez; Pantea Foroudi; Bang Nguyen

Addresses: Dundee Business School, Abertay University, UK ' The Business School, Middlesex University London, UK ' East China University of Science and Technology, School of Business, Shanghai, China

Abstract: Drawing upon resource-based theory, this paper presents a core competence evaluation framework for managing the competence portfolio of an oil company. It introduces a network typology to illustrate how to form different types of strategic alliance relations with partnering firms to manage and grow the competence portfolio. A framework is tested using a case study approach involving face-to-face structured interviews. We identified purchasing, refining and sales and marketing as strong candidates to be the core competencies. However, despite the company's core business of refining oil, the core competencies were identified to be their research and development and performance management (PM) capabilities. We further provide a procedure to determine different kinds of physical, intellectual and cultural resources making a dominant impact on company's competence portfolio. In addition, we provide a comprehensive set of guidelines on how to develop core competence further by forging a partnership alliance choosing an appropriate network topology.

Keywords: competence portfolio; resource-based view; core competence; resource-asset-capability; network topology; collective learning.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMDM.2019.100493

International Journal of Management and Decision Making, 2019 Vol.18 No.3, pp.229 - 256

Received: 29 Nov 2017
Accepted: 24 Apr 2018
Published online: 29 Jun 2019 *

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