Core Competence for Sustainable Competitive Advantage Ján Papula, Jana Volná Faculty of Management, Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia jan.papula@fm.uniba.sk, jana.volna@fm.uniba.sk Abstract The concept of core competence refers to the possibility of an organization to build permanent and sustainable competitive advantage in todays ever-changing and unpredictable environment. To achieve long-term success, it is better to find the source of its competitiveness within the company, because the only stable certainty in a constantly changing environment is the internal capacity stemming from a desire to be successful in the future. This paper responds to current issues related to building and maintaining a sustainable competitive advantage. Keywords: Core Competence, Sustainable Competitive Advantage, Intangible Assets, Intellectual Capital Main Conference Topic: Technology and innovation management Introduction Organizations must learn to manage future opportunities as well as they must be able to manage existing ones. In the environment of the 21st century, companies have to compete within a complex and challenging context created by many factors - from globalization, technological development and the rapid dissemination of new technologies, to the development and exploitation of knowledge. This new environment requires from the organizations to do things differently as they have used to. They must find new sources of competitive advantage and engage in new forms of competition. This requires a clear understanding of the nature of the competitionĽ as well as the competitive dynamics (HuĐvejĽ 2008) The utilization of resources is being shifted from current capital strategic resources to strategic resources in the form of information, knowledge, creative thinking and innovation. Skills and knowledge belong to critical factors of production. Companies can gain competitive advantage by implementing continual and on-going innovations and the managerial skills and knowledge are in the center of the process of innovations (PapulovἠMokrošĽ 2007). 1. Resource-based view on strategy development Clarifying of the company’s success and of its strategic performance now begi ns with looking at resources and capabilities of the company and with understanding their impact on competitiveness. Resources are no longer analyzed and evaluated only in terms of the implementation of the chosen strategy, but they become an important factor in deciding the actual choice of strategy. Traditional models of strategy creation (such as Porter model) focus mainly on external environment. They analyze products, market position, industry trends, and the effects of factors of global environment. Little attention is paid to look inside the organization for internal abilities and predispositions. Internal environment tends to be judged primarily in terms of ability to meet the opportunities arising from the external environment. Resource-based view over strategy development (which stands behind the basic concept of company’s core competences) brings the innovation in looking at the internal environment of Papula, Ján - Volná, Jana (2013) “Core Competence for Sustainable Competitive Advantage“, Multidisciplinary Academic Research. Praha: MAC Prague consulting, ISBN 978-80-905442-2-2. Papula, Ján - Volná, Jana (2013) “Core Competence for Sustainable Competitive Advantage“, Multidisciplinary Academic Research. Praha: MAC Prague consulting, ISBN 978-80-905442-2-2.