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The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between a number of variables pertaining to core capability, competitive strategy and performance of construction small to medium size enterprises (SMEs) in China.

The paper consists of a quantitative survey. It involves mainly the development of instrument and testing of the hypotheses.

Core capability and competitive strategy are found to influence construction SMEs' performance. Moreover, there are positive relationships between core capability and competitive strategy. This suggests a need to align core capability and competitive strategy as a precondition for superior performance.

The paper has limitations as a result of data collection. A somewhat larger sample would obviously permit firmer conclusions to be drawn from the results of the statistical analysis.

This paper will contribute to the literature on SMEs, strategic management and resource‐based theory. This integration of scope is particularly new to the context of the Chinese construction industry. Similarly, this research will have implications for practice. The research findings help SMEs' managers to understand the impact of the unique resources of their enterprises and competitive strategy.

This research considers the way banks have altered their strategies as regulatory change (i.e. deregulation) and information technology (IT) innovations created more opportunities for service delivery and extended the range of potential competitors and forms of competition. These external changes provided new diversification and growth opportunities but also modified prior expectations about the way managers defined and controlled their bank’s core capabilities in pursuing current and potential business. The main research instrument used was a one hour, semi‐structured interview; and in total 55 managers of commercial banks, investment banks, management consulting firms and regulators from Mexico, Spain and the UK participated. Qualitative and quantitative analysis established that the great majority of banks responded to changes in growth opportunities through diversification moves but with no clear link to core capabilities. IT management played a secondary role in the design of bank strategy but at the same time, IT applications were perceived as an important force to modify competition in bank markets by supporting radical re‐engineering of service delivery in ways that undermined previous advantages of scale and scope.

The aim of this paper is to investigate whether protection of core capabilities requires a greater level of control, i.e. ownership, even if it is at the cost of lower flexibility. Despite the significant research interest in equity alliances, knowledge of strategic orientation of acquiring companies is still incomplete.

The study examines two main generic organizational forms, hierarchy and market, their benefits and threats for acquiring companies while protecting their core capabilities in equity alliances.

The protection of core capabilities is becoming an important strategic objective in the processes of forging equity alliances which are based on ownership and legal relationships. Ownership brings more control over core capabilities which mean competitive advantage through hierarchical organizational structure on the one hand but less flexibility as otherwise benefited in market organizational structure on the other.

Further studies are required in order to corroborate the assessment of presented organizational forms and to explore these relationships over a longer period of time.

The topic is relevant for designing strategies in acquiring companies or those companies becoming a part of global networks. Better understanding of strategic orientation and concept of control could significantly enhance the success rate in M&A activity.

The paper explores as to when and why a certain organizational structure, hierarchy or market, is the preferred one for companies. This paper intends to give executives practical, hands‐on advice for conducting M&A activity.

This paper aims to understand how an external assessment of resources, activities and performance contributes to continuously develop capabilities for business schools.

The EQUIS accreditation framework is reorganized into a capability‐based model for business schools. Next, the case of a business school's experience with EQUIS is used to identify core‐capabilities.

The paper emphasizes three core‐capabilities that are strengthened through the EQUIS accreditation process: strategizing, changing and branding.

The paper argues that an accreditation process characterized by cyclical assessments and floating standards incorporates the features of a sustainable strategy for continuously developing capabilities within business schools.

Both the military and non-military organizations (NMO) bring assets, skills, and capabilities to a humanitarian crisis, however, their capabilities and competencies are very diverse. Identification of the specific competencies and capabilities that are core to these types of organizations can enable better planning by both military and NMOs, allowing them to achieve greater effectiveness and efficiency in the humanitarian response. The purpose of this paper is to explore the core capabilities of the military and NMOs engaged in humanitarian operations.

The work builds on existing literature on the core competency of the corporation. The authors extend the concept of the ability to identify, cultivate, and exploit the core capabilities in the private sector to the organizations that want to respond efficiently and effectively to disasters. The authors develop a core competencies test for such organizations.

The research identifies the competencies and capabilities that are core to the US military and NMOs for humanitarian assistance and disaster relief. By identifying such abilities the authors establish a vein of research for exploring the role of such organizations to facilitate greater understanding among academics, policy makers, and decision makers in public administration, public health, and international aid.

Existing literature in humanitarian logistics does not adequately address identification of those competencies and capabilities that are core to the military organizations and NMOs and are most needed during the operational life cycle of a humanitarian crisis. In addition to identifying them, the authors compare the core capabilities of the military and NMO.

In the new knowledge economy, intellectual property has become an important strategic issue. However, in many firms, the management of intellectual property (IP) is still divorced from business strategy. People still think that “managing IP strategically” means having an IP strategy rather than managing IP according to business strategy. We argue that intellectual property is strategic only to the extent that it links to the firm’s core capabilities and that not all intellectual property is core to business strategy. We present a model for identifying the function of intellectual property in a firm’s business strategy and present specific recommendations for protecting, valuing and generating IP from a strategic point of view.

If you're having a crisis of confidence about your business strategy right now, that's probably a good thing. The “new” economy has had a profound effect on the nature of business strat‐egy because it has changed the sources of sustainable above‐average returns. Michael Porter, a leading strategy thinker, characterizes the change as a movement from trying to be “better than” your competition to being “different” so that you can provide “unique value.”

The paper seeks to combine the uses of the balanced scorecard and hoshin kanri as integrative dynamic capabilities for the entire strategic management process. It aims to posit a model for the combination of these long‐ and short‐term organisational activities as a framework for a senior level to manage a firm's strategic fit as an integrated organisation‐wide system that links top management goals to daily management.

The resource‐based view of strategy is explored for its relevance to how a combined balanced scorecard and hoshin kanri approach serves as a high‐order dynamic capability. Examples are given from Canon, Toyota and Nissan, of how core capabilities are managed to show how strategy is executed cross‐functionally across a firm's functional hierarchy.

The study finds that strategic management of the organisation should consider the long‐term strategy as well as the short‐term capability. Important to this are core capabilities and core competences, cross‐functional management, and top executive audits, which, when managed properly, explicate a new view of strategic fit, as a form of nested hierarchies of dynamic capabilities.

The paper is the first exposition of how balanced scorecard and hoshin kanri practices may usefully complement each other in strategic management. It is a useful framework for dynamically managing sustained competitive advantage.

A good strategy has a clear strategic bet, one that you can articulate so that everyone understands.

There is considerable evidence that long periods of success in organisations can lead to ossification of strategy and strategic inertia. Burgelman (2002) shows how co-evolutionary lock-in occurs through the creation of a strategy vector. He demonstrates that the internal selection environment can become configured to create sources of inertia that dampen the autonomous strategy process, driving out unrelated exploration and creating a dominance of the induced, top-down strategy process. While this study shows how lock-in occurs, it does not address how a company breaks out of co-evolutionary lock-in. This is the focus of this paper. We argue that to understand how an organisation breaks out of a strategy vector a more complete conceptualisation of the structural context, and in particular the under specified cultural mechanisms, is required. It also requires an understanding of the linkages between the structural context and the new core capabilities required for breakout. Thus we first expand on what is known about strategy vectors and review research from the strategy process tradition that explores the linkages between strategy, culture and strategic change, to build a more comprehensive picture of the structural context. Our model demonstrates the extent of interconnectedness between the ‘hard’ (e.g., control systems and organisation structure) and ‘soft’ (e.g. beliefs, symbols and stories) components, and that development of new required capabilities is dependent on a holistic shift in all these aspects of the structural context, including, therefore, change in the organisation's culture. We then illustrate the link between lock-in, capability development and culture change through the case of the famous Formula One team, Ferrari. We finish with a discussion of the implications of our findings for strategic change.