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The concept of core competence underlies competence-based competition and competence-based management. When new firms get established, due to resource constraints, managers have to make conscious decisions to develop certain competencies and not others. In order to have all competencies that are required to be successful, firms look for strategic alliances and to leverage their partner firms’ competencies. In this paper, we develop a contingency model for firms that have to go for strategic alliances to explain which core competencies should be developed internally, which core competencies could be from the alliance partner, which type of alliance will be suitable and whether the firm should choose a short-term, long-term or permanent alliance. Using Hamel’s (1994) generic core competencies and the type of market (industrial or individual), we suggest which type of strategic alliance should be chosen for leveraging a partner’s competencies.

This chapter focuses on the types of roles, responsibilities, and competencies essential to organizational intelligence. The authors draw upon earlier series authors’ important work (Drucker, 2012; Garcia-Perez et al., 2019; Lafayette, Curtis, Bedford, & Iyer, 2019; Reinhardt, Schmidt, Sloep, & Drachsler, 2011) to define competencies. The authors define four categories of intelligence competencies, including those suited to strategic roles, those that support specialized intelligence work, those that support embedded intelligence roles, and universal competencies that apply to everyone.

Competency models are widespread in entrepreneurship and help develop educational offerings. Although existing models cater to specific sub-disciplines, the field of Industry 4.0 startups still needs a tailored competency. Therefore, this study aims to bridge this gap by developing a specific competency model to address the unique challenges in Industry 4.0 entrepreneurship.

The research approach involved a content analysis and interview study in compiling and categorizing the necessary competencies to succeed in the Industry 4.0 domain. The developed model was subjected to different forms of validation using the Content Validity Index and inter-rater reliability incorporating expert feedback.

The described multi-methodological approach resulted in the proposed “CompEntre 4.0” model, which contains 23 crucial competencies for Industry 4.0 startups. The results of this model validation demonstrate that it meets the necessary threshold values, establishing its reliability and potential for future use and further improvement.

By providing a structured framework tailored to the specific demands of this domain, the competency model has the potential to guide and empower entrepreneurs, improving their prospects for success in the rapidly evolving landscape of Industry 4.0.

While there are specific competency models for the entrepreneurship field and for specific sub-disciplines of entrepreneurship, there is, despite numerous specifics, no competency model for Industry 4.0 entrepreneurship yet.

This paper explores the link between leadership derailment risk and competency ambidexterity in a digitalized global environment. It also investigates the impact of balanced skills on leadership success in collectivist and assertive cultures.

A mixed methods approach is employed using survey data from 766 American and Japanese managers and eight interviews across four diverse cultures. It uncovers the intricate relationship between leadership derailment risk and competency ambidexterity.

Optimal competency ambidexterity lowers the risks of leadership incompetence (operationalized as derailment) but through distinct configurations of current and needed competencies, which both competencies should be congruent at high levels in uncertain environments. Furthermore, moderately high competency levels mitigate derailment risk in collaborative cultures (Japan and China), while very assertive cultures (USA and Netherlands) require high competencies to lower derailment danger and sustain leadership effectiveness.

Leaders must maintain competency ambidexterity, adapting to diverse contexts in our dynamic world. Recognizing cultural nuances is essential for enhancing managers’ skills in global talent management.

Cultural values shape competency configurations and managers should balance organizational and personal competencies for effective leadership. Qualitative insights complement quantitative data.

Manufacturing systems have undergone radical changes because of the implementation of physical and digital innovating technologies with high levels of connectivity, interoperability and autonomy. In this regard, the objective of this study was to investigate whether industrial engineers graduated in recent years in Brazil are prepared or not to work in companies and industries within the scope of Industry 4.0 technologies in a way that they positively contribute to the implementation and management of such technologies.

To achieve these objectives, a literature review and a survey on managers of the industrial sector acting in Brazil were carried out as the research strategies. The data collected were analyzed through a quantitative approach by means of the structural equations modeling method.

The hypothesis that the competencies of industrial engineers currently graduating in Brazil have a positive impact on the implementation and management of Industry 4.0 technologies has been confirmed. Predicting the evolution of production scenarios, understanding the interaction between organizations and their impacts on competitiveness and keeping abreast of technological advancements, organizing them and putting them to the service of business and societal demands were the competencies that obtained the highest factor loadings in the construct of industrial engineer competencies. In addition, cloud manufacturing, automation and robotization were the competencies that obtained the highest factor loadings in the industry 4.0 construct.

The analysis of skills development stands out as a source of competitive advantage for companies that intend to transition to a production system aligned with the principles of Industry 4.0, considering the training of professionals in an emerging economy context.

A learning-focused culture promotes creativity, innovativeness and the acquisition of novel insights and competencies. The study aims to explore the relationship between human resource development (HRD) practice and employee competencies using organizational learning culture as a mediating variable.

Data were collected from 828 employees of 37 health care institutions comprising 24 (internationally-owned) and 13 (indigenously-owned). Construct reliability and validity was established through a confirmatory factor analysis. The proposed model and hypotheses were evaluated using structural equation modeling.

Data supported the hypothesized relationships. The results show that training and development and employee competencies were significantly related. Career development and employee competencies were significantly related. Organizational learning culture mediates the relationship between training and development and employee competencies. However, organizational learning culture did not mediate the relationship between career development and employee competencies.

The generalizability of the findings will be constrained due to the research’s health care focus and cross-sectional data.

The study’s findings will serve as valuable pointers to policy makers and stakeholders of health care institutions in developing system-level capacities that promote continuous learning and adaptive learning cultures to ensure sustainability and competitive advantage.

By evidencing empirically that organizational learning culture mediates the relationship between HRD practices and employee competencies the study extends the literature.

For business and management higher education (HE) to transition graduates to digital workplaces and careers, it’s crucial they develop competencies (digital and traditional, soft and technical, new and old) that are relevant and applicable.

Insights are obtained from 60 comprehensive interviews with HE business students, educators and industry practitioners.

Six synergistic competencies are described that leverage synergies of (often) divergent competencies in the digital age of business, integrating them with a recently emerged multi-disciplinary competency framework. Each synergy states its target application, purpose and is aligned with specific HE practices.

Scholarship of competencies is re-oriented away from clusters and towards synergies, with a new inter-disciplinary competency framework validated to business in the digital age, with directions provided for HE.

The purpose of this study is to determine the competency characteristics required for the employment of master’s degree students in educational technology.

A combined qualitative and quantitative method was used to consult multiple experts through a modified Delphi method. Competency characteristics were extracted from Chinese recruitment apps, national recruitment websites and university training programs. Ten senior teacher experts who teach educational technology master’s students were consulted through a questionnaire consultation to validate the proposed competency model. The weights of competency characteristics were determined through a combination of the analytic hierarchy process and entropy method.

The results show that when recruiting educational technology master’s students, more emphasis is placed on operational skills. The majority of companies tend to assess practical abilities rather than theoretical knowledge. Relevant knowledge of educational technology, psychology, computer science and education is considered to be the basic knowledge components of educational technology master’s students, while professional skills are the core skills required for their positions. Therefore, universities need to focus on training, educational technology graduate students in these areas of competence. The study also found that professional qualities (such as physical and mental fitness) and personality traits (interpersonal communication and interaction) receive more attention from companies and are essential competencies for educational technology master’s students.

A competence model for educational technology master’s students is proposed, which includes aspects such as knowledge, personal skills/abilities, professional qualities and personality traits. The competence elements included in this model can serve as reference indicators for universities to cultivate the competence of educational technology master’s students, as well as reference points for recruiting units to help them select talents. This represents a new dimension in research related to the employment of educational technology master’s students. The study enriches the research objects and competence dictionary in the field of competence research.

The present paper contributes to the development of sustainable strategies by focusing on the social perspective and the role played by HRM. Specifically, we identified and compared the employee competencies that supported the compliance strategy as well as the innovative/proactive sustainability strategies – and their impacts on social outcomes.

After formulating hypotheses, we tested them on a sample of 179 companies from the chemical and metallurgical industries using the bootstrap method.

The results revealed that both sustainability strategies were present in the sample. The compliance sustainable strategy showed to be negatively associated with employee competencies, whilst proactive sustainable strategy firms presented a positive relationship with employee competencies. We also found that compliance strategies failed to have any impact on social outcomes, but proactive strategies had a positive effect on social outcomes. Indeed, normative and foresighted thinking competencies acted as mediating variables in such a relationship.

The originality of this paper lies in three aspects hitherto unaddressed in the literature: first, the conceptualisation and assessment of sustainable strategies focused on a social dimension; second, the identification of individual competencies required developing sustainable strategies; and third, the demonstration that it is only the firms that adopt proactive sustainable strategies that obtain positive social outcomes.