| Economic globalization has intensified the internationalization of competition. The experts and scholars at home or abroad asserted that the competition in the future market would be the competition of core competence. Enhancing the core competence of an enterprise is the essential strategy choice for the favorable joint of home enterprises with the international ones and for the success against competitors and unceasing development in the international competition. Moreover , many domestic men of insight emphasized that the competition of Chinese enterprises in the new century and new environment was not been the competition of province level, ministry level and nation level yet, but the core competence, without which the international competence will be impossible. Therefore, there will be no way to take the challenge of economic globalization and the rules of WTO. As a result, it is of the revolutionary and strategic significance to enhance the core competence of enterprises in the new century. The theory of core competence was put forward by the commercial management professor C.K. Prahalad from Michigan State University and the strategic and international management professor Gary Hamel from London Commercial College in Harvard Commercial Comment in 1990. It had an extensive and profound influence in the world of academy and enterprise after it was presented. "It seems that the world of management has found a multipurpose key to the enterprise operation. As long as the enterprise emphasizes core competence and persists in development and management, it will be successful in the market". Other fields of social science also made research and investigation on the core competence from different angles. For a while, this theory prevailed all over the world. However, most research and investigation of academe are theories, methods and views of management field. In the present paper, core competence, the source of continuous competitive edges of an enterprise has been analyzed, researched and investigated from the economic aspect. The theory of core competence is one of the newest theories that combine economics and management science. It originates from the investigation on the sources of continuous competitive edges of an enterprise by the theory of strategic management , the theory of economics , the theory of knowledge-based economy and the theory of innovation. The writer sticks to the instruction of Marxism theory, fully absorbs and uses the modern theory achievements for reference and refers to a good many literatures existed. With the combination of historical analysis and logic analysis, normative analysis and positive analysis, the writer starts with competition, competence as well as core competence and utilizes the research methods of positive economics and normative economics to comprehensively analyze and research the enterprise core competence, re-analyze and re-understand the meaning and structure of core competence and build up the model of the enterprise core competence. The purpose of the present paper is to settle the theory base of the research on identifying, estimating and cultivating the core competence and to instruct national enterprises to find and cherish their sources of competitive edges, so as to keep vital in the intense market competition. The present paper is divided into 6 chapters. Chapter 1 Introduction The proposition of the research on core competence from the angle of economic analysis in this paper is directly presented in this part. From theaspects of the introduction and origination of core competence, the theory of economics as well as the theory of management science about core competence etc, the national and international review of research on core competence has been comprehensively expounded. Moreover, the developing track of the theory of core competence has been analyzed from three aspects—the theory of market structure, the theory of resources base and the theory of enterprise capacity. Also, the research trend and prospect of the core competence theory have been predicted audaciously. The main theory supports of the present paper: the theory of dynamic competition, the theory of perfect competition, the theory of monopolistic competition, the theory of effective competition, the theory of competitive strategy, the theory of transaction cost, the theory of core competence, evolutionism of business growth, the theory of resources base and the theory of culture control. Chapter 2 Competition, Competence and Core Competence From the common Chinese and English definition of competition, its explanation in economics together with scholars'comprehension about the evolution of competition research and the concept of competition, the concept of competition has been concluded and abstracted in the present paper; from the concept and the research methods of competence in economics, the economic normal form of constructing the competence research has been educed. On the basis of the definition of competition and competence, the writer mainly sets forth people's different comprehension on core competence, traces the source of core competence, and combines the core competence based on the views of concord, capital, knowledge, civilization, combination, competition etc. Core competence has beenconcluded and redefined subsequently and the conclusion that core competence is the foundation of enterprise competence has been educed. At the same time, the economic feature and dialectic relation of competition, competence and core competence has been seriously considered. Chapter 3 The Features and Structure Analysis of Core Competence According to the different national and international academic viewpoints on core competence, four basic features—valuable, integrity, special, difficult to imitate and six related features—extensive, knowledgeable, dynamic, radiate, un-exchangeable, difficult to replace have been creatively educed and put forward. The basic structure, value adoption and function of core competence have been analyzed from three aspects—culture power, study power, innovation power. The structure analysis and functioning mechanism analysis about the culture, study and creativity of an enterprise have been done in detail. The applied value of the structure of core competence has been put forward from the angle of evaluation and culture. Chapter 4 The Index System Design of the Enterprise Core Competence and the Construction of Models Core competence is a complicated dynamic system, some indexes of which are vague or even uncertain. This brings objective difficulties to the index system design of core competence and the construction of models. However, under the principles of proceeding from actual capability and being practical and realistic, the writer makes audacious attempt and research on the index system design of core competence and the construction of models. On the basis of referring to a great many national and international scholars'index designs, the writer designs the appraisal indexes of culture power andstudy power in the basic structure of core competence and constructs the models of U={W, X, C}, W={W1, W2}, X={X1, X2, X3}, and C={C1, C2, C3, C4}, among which, W represents culture power, X represents study power, C represents creativity. Because of the complexity of the indexes, as for the indexes without concrete figures, the present paper attains the result that Mij belongs to degree xijs of the s comment by the method of Delphi or random investigation method. And initial judgment matrix Ri is constructed accordingly. After the determination of the index proportion and arithmetic operators, the primary synthetical fuzzy appraise, secondary and third class appraise are carried out to core competence. At last, the core values of an enterprise can be evaluated according to three gained indexes appraisal values Ai of the main rule level. Through the judgment of the matrix conversion—Bn to Ai and the supposition of third class judgment vector, five appraisal values of core competence can be gotten. h1 = Z1?a11⊕Z2?a21⊕Z3?a31 h2 = Z1?a12⊕Z2?a22⊕Z3?a32 h3 = Z1?a13⊕Z2?a23⊕Z3?a33 h4 = Z1?a14⊕Z2?a24⊕Z3?a34 h5 = Z1?a15⊕Z2?a25⊕Z3?a35 After the unitary process of H=(h1, h2, h3, h4, h5), and according to maximum subjection principle in the fuzzy mathematics, the numerical value of core competence can be gotten. Chapter 5 The Cultivating and Enhancing of Core Competence In this chapter, the wrong awareness of cultivating and enhancing corecompetence has been firstly analyzed. The basic way to recognize and appraise core competence is also expounded. The inner identifying methods have been analyzed from three aspects—value chain, technique and assets, and from the analysis of customer contribution and competition difference, the exterior identifying methods have also been expounded. The development trend of enterprise market, "five great assets"and "four great techniques"are also appraised. Furthermore, the system designing and system arranging for cultivating and enhancing core competence are discussed in detail. The route choice for cultivating and enhancing core competence has been discussed from two aspects: interior cultivation and exterior construction. The procedure and methods are set forth respectively. Chapter 6 The Criticism of Enterprise Core Competence In recent years, core competence theory and methods have gained wide attention in the national world of enterprises and academies, however it is not almighty but with many limitations. Meanwhile, as a matter of fact, many people copy and abuse core competence, distort or exaggerate its function without regarding condition, environment or occasion. For removing these misunderstanding and prejudice , this chapter sums up the seven misapprehension and eight limitations of core competence in order to ensure a right understanding of the facts, help people to understand and treat core competence correctly and remove thought obstacles for cultivating and enhancing core competence of national enterprise nowadays. In the part of epilogue, on the one hand it is well clarified that competition, competence and core competence is a complex academic matter of synchronizing multiple subjects, which need to be generally discussed and communicated; on the other hand, it is indicated that the research on corecompetence still has a long way to go, and the problem of cultivating and advancing core competence has no time to delay. Besides, what must be admitted is that the investigation of the present paper is rudimental and limited, especially the issues about the theories, methods, index design and model test of core competence and the issues about authenticating and measuring of it, which are still of different opinions and even have defects and problems. Further research, investigation and argumentation are needed for the contribution to the reform and development of our enterprises, especially to the prosperity of northeast old industrial base. Creative points of this paper: Firstly, the systematic research on core competence with the methods of theoretical economics overcomes differences of enterprises. The economic means is used to conclude and explain competition, competence and core competence and the research findings about them are brought into the research system of theoretical economics, which is helpful for expanding the use of theoretical economics in the field of enterprise management. Secondly, on the basis of related discussions, the definitions of competition, competence and core competition have been standardized, concluded and induced and the dialectic relation of the three has been expounded and demonstrated in the present paper. Furthermore, the concepts of competition, competence and core competence that present the characteristics of this paper have been put forward. Thirdly, the theoretical source and six genres of core competence have been systematically concluded. The different emphases of corecompetence in economics and management science and different opinions on core competence of national and international scholars have been compared too. Besides, the level features of core competence have been presented for the first time. Fourthly, the writer analyzes the basic structure of core competence, expounds the basic meanings and functioning mechanisms of study, creation and culture , and puts forward the applied value of core competence structure. Fifthly, the model of estimating and measuring the enterprise core competence has been constructed, the system of estimate index of core competence has been designed and the principles of index design and model construction of it has been expounded. Sixthly, on the basis of core competence misunderstandings, the essential means of identifying and estimating core competence has been presented, the inside and outside identifying methods of core competence has been expounded from multi-angles, and the growth trend of enterprise market, "five great assets", and "four great techniques"have been preliminarily evaluated. Seventhly, the system designing and system arranging of cultivating and advancing core competence of an enterprise has been brought forward, and the route choice of cultivating and advancing it has been discussed subject to the external and inernal side of an enterprise. Moreover, the procedure of interior cultivation and the methods of exterior construction have been expatiated. Eighthly, core competence of an enterprise has been academically...
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