A professional services firm's competence development

1 Introduction The competence of an individual person or of an organization is not a new phenomenon (Bandura, 1986; Dunphy, Turner, & Crawford, 1997; Kloftsen, 1992; Ulvund, 1985). However, our understanding of the concept of competence and, for that matter, how that is developed over time, at the individual level or at the organizational level, can differ from one researcher to another. In the marketing literature and the strategy literature, for example, researchers have over the years used all sorts of measures, such as competitive position, competitive advantage, market shares, profitability, core competences, competitive position, and customer loyalty to describe and/or explain a business firm's performance in the marketplace (Aaker, 2005; Bradley, 1995; Doyle, 1994, 2002; Kotler, 1997, 2001; Porter, 1985). For some, the firm's performance, the results of which can be any of the above measures, are mostly internal strategies, which a firm needs to develop and defend over time so as to be able to outperform its competitors (Hamel & Prahalad, 1990; Hollensen, 2001; Porter, 1985). To be able to effectively compete with rivals and outperform them, a firm will need to develop its core competence, for instance, by undertaking internal strategies that will facilitate that effort (Hamel & Prahalad, 1990).