A method to determine core competences in small and medium enterprises

Abstract

The sources of competitive advantage are firm characteristics that allow them to be in a better position than its competitors. Modern firm theories consider that these sources are internal and external factors of business. Entrepreneur combines these factors by the strategy to set their core competencies. This paper proposes a method for determining the formation of core competencies. We discuss the different techniques used and we propose an alternative based on principal components with direct oblimin rotation. We assess the implementation of this method to a particular case in SMEs.