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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.

The purpose of this paper is to expand the competence-led structuring and understanding of sustainability education by analysing the practices of professional individuals who have completed university education geared to the development of sustainability change-makers.

The research scope was initially on examining professional practices following the boundary work theory. Social practice theory was used as a methodological approach in conducting and analysing thematic interviews with 19 sustainability-focused master’s programme alumni. The interviews were analysed against the theoretical framework while also noting findings that fell outside of this framework.

A framework for understanding materials, competences and meanings of practices connected to the professional field of sustainability was introduced. The framework suggests that in the practices of sustainability-educated professionals, meanings emerge as a top priority and are conveyed using position-based materials and various complexes of competency.

The authors suggest that boundary theory informs well the emergence of the professional field of sustainability, and the utilisation of a practice theory furthers the understanding of sustainability professionalism and its education.

The authors’ suggest that practice theory could thus provide deeper insights on how sustainability science alumni use their education after graduation, how they practice their profession and in return offer applicable reflections to sustainability education.

Research using practice theory in reflection on sustainability education and the professional practice of sustainability has not been widely conducted and in the authors’ opinion brings value to the education and practice of sustainability and to the research of sustainability education.

The purpose of this study is identifying the competencies that are characteristic of effective middle managers.

Data was gathered in personal interviews, using the behavioral event interview technique, from the responses of 20 middle manages working for several public agencies in West Java Province, Indonesia. 12 were previously rated on work performance as superior and 8 were rated as average. 80 stories were obtained and examined in two ways – deductively coded using the National Civil Service Agency’s managerial competency dictionary and inductively to identify new themes through thematic analysis.

Competencies which may distinguish superior from average performers are achievement orientation, leadership, directiveness, persuasiveness and innovation. Competencies frequently cited in the stories of both average and superior performers are oral communication, organizing, information seeking, analytical thinking and planning; new competencies identified in thematic analysis which lead to effective management were adherence to laws and regulations, multi-stakeholder collaboration and technical competencies which includes human resource management, technology management and financial management.

For organizations to improve the performance of middle managers they should focus on the on the development of those competencies which distinguish superior from average middle managers and identification of these traits in the recruitment and promoting of employees.

This paper has an original approach as it fills a research gap in competency modeling for the middle management level in a public sector context.

The aim of the study is to analyze the perceptions of belief-in-importance (BI), self-efficacy (SE) and preferred source of learning (SL) of information literacy (IL) competencies among psychology students in Spain and Portugal.

Unified protocol was based on the questionnaire IL-HUMASS (26 items). Quantitative diagnostic-comparative study was carried out, including factor and variance analysis. Hypothesis compliance was checked.

By country, there are no significant differences in students' perceptions, although the scores in BI are higher than in SE. By category, there are some significant differences, and the least valued is that of processing. By individual competency, seven of them show differences between countries. Learning preferences are for a mix of classroom and autonomous learning. Students barely realize the value of libraries. Within factor structures, which share the same components in each dimension, some emerging factors do appear.

Motivation (BI and SE) with respect to IL competencies is a key asset for future psychologists. Interest should focus on some emerging motivational factors. Students' appreciation of the library should enhance through the corresponding initiatives for improvement. This method could be complemented by qualitative studies.

This is probably the first diagnostic-comparative study on perceptions of IL competencies among future psychology professionals.

The aim of this article is to propose and test a structural model of relationships between generic and specific competencies and entrepreneurial competencies in order to assess students' learning.

The study was carried out on a sample of 337 students enrolled on the entrepreneurship specialisation of the final bachelor's degree project course on the Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration and Management at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya. A questionnaire was designed to gather information on students' perception of their level of acquisition of the different groups of competencies. The partial least squares (PLS) multivariate technique was used to analyse the model.

The results confirm that there are significant relationships between the different groups of competencies. Specifically, it shows that generic competencies influence specific competencies and that there is a strong relationship between systemic and professional competencies and entrepreneurial competencies. It also shows that the experience variable contributes positively to different competency groups, while the gender and age variables have no effect on the development of entrepreneurial competencies.

The study provides relevant information to the academic world on different factors that affect competency development.

The analysis provides an innovative research and contributes knowledge on entrepreneurial competency acquisition, providing an answer to whether generic and specific competencies influence entrepreneurial competencies.

This paper aims to identify skills and competencies perceived relevant by tourism graduate employees and tourism employers for providing quality tourism services in Kenya.

The purpose of this paper is to focus on measuring competencies of higher education graduates and employers' needs, and using these measurements in the quality development of higher education study programmes.

Results of a survey among Danish employers and their perception of the competencies of MSc graduates from Copenhagen Business School (CBS) are presented and discussed. In addition to assessing the competencies, the respondents were also asked to assess the importance of the individual competencies.

The estimated importance score and performance score for each competency can be combined in a competency map, and it is shown how the four cells in the map can be interpreted in useful ways, when essential areas for quality improvement of the study programme are to be identified.

This study is limited to the Danish employers' perceptions of MSc graduates from CBS.

The presented linking of competencies to employers' needs have clear managerial implications in the strategic development of higher education study programmes.

The study identifies and measures 16 essential graduate competencies and links these to employers' needs in a competency map.

Aims to review the key concepts of competency management (CM) and to propose method for developing competency method.

Examines the CM features of 22 CM systems and 18 learning management systems.

Finds that the areas of open standard (XML, web services, RDF), semantic technologies (ontologies and the semantic web) and portals with self‐service technologies are going to play a significant part in the evolution of CM systems.

Emphasizes the beneficial attributes of CM for private and public organizations.

The purpose of this paper is to show that development of competencies needed to be effective managers and leaders requires program design and teaching methods focused on learning. This is the introductory essay to this special issue of JMD.

Competencies are defined and an overview is provided for the eight papers that will follow with original research on competencies, their link to performance in various occupations, and their development.

Emotional, social and cognitive intelligence competencies predict effectiveness in professional, management and leadership roles in many sectors of society. In addition, these competencies can be developed in adults.

As an introductory essay, this lays the foundation for the papers in this issue.

Competencies needed to be effective can be developed.

Despite widespread application, there are few published studies of the empirical link between competencies and performance. There are even fewer published studies showing that they can be developed. This special issue will add to both literatures.