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ACCA Strategic Professional · Strategic Business Leader · The internal resources, capabilities and competences of an organisation

Harbourline, a regional ferry operator, has a booking app that is easy for rivals to copy, but it also holds an unusually skilled crew-training system built over twenty years that lowers incident rates and is hard for rivals to replicate. Using the resource-based view, which of the following is best described as a core competence of Harbourline?

The crew-training system is the core competence because it creates value through lower incident rates and is difficult for rivals to imitate. The easily copied app offers no lasting advantage, and ferries or turnover are assets or outcomes rather than competences.

  1. AThe booking app, because customers use it daily
  2. BThe crew-training system, because it is valuable and difficult to imitateCorrect
  3. CThe ferries themselves, because they are tangible assets
  4. DThe company's turnover, because it shows market strength

Explanation

Core competences are activities and processes that deliver superior value to customers and are hard for competitors to imitate. The crew-training system meets both tests. The app is easily copied, so it gives at most temporary parity. Ferries and turnover are not competences.

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