Commonly considered as the sum of knowledge and knowing capabilities that can be utilized to give a company competitive advantage (Nahapiet & Ghoshal, 2002; Stewart, 1998; Youndt, Subramaniam, & Snell, 2004); or as the “knowledge that can be turned value” (Leif Edvinsson & Sullivan, 1996: 358). Brooking (1996) defines it as the combination of immaterial assets that allow the operation of the organization. It’s accepted and generalized the consideration of tree elements: human capital, structural capital and relational capital.
Published in Chapter:
Critical Success Factors and Core Competencies
Helena Santos Rodrigues (Instituto Politécnico de Viana do Castelo, Viana do Castelo, Portugal and Escola Superior de Techologia e Gestaõ, Portugal) and Pedro Figueroa Dorrego (Universidade de Vigo, Pontevedra, Spain)
Copyright: © 2008
|Pages: 5
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-59904-885-7.ch048
Abstract
To effectively compete, the company needs to adjust their internal strengths to the environmental opportunities. Considering the “intangible” support of virtual organizations, it point out the importance of intangible resources. So, managers need to identify, combine, recombine, and manage their resources, competencies and capability to explore their potential and perform better than the competitors on the costumer needs, preferences, and desires satisfaction. So, the advantage of an organization consists in the identification of the internal: core competences, mainly based on knowledge assets and intellectual capital, that align with the key success factors of the market gives: competitive advantage, better performance and better market position.