Abstract
Core competency is the basis of promoting a competitive advantage for any organization; this study aims to establish an objective and systematic assessment model for companies to identify their capabilities. This model will not only assist companies in understanding their own capabilities but will also allow them to compare their performance with that of main competitors to strengthen their competitiveness. The analysis process involved a combination of the fuzzy analytic hierarchy process, fuzzy linguistic value, and the ideal and anti-ideal concept. An objective and systematic model was first developed, which underwent empirical analysis using data from the top three home delivery companies in Taiwan. It was found that “Basic organizational competencies” and “Special competitive competencies” were the two key categories for the home delivery industry. Moreover, “Service price”, “On-time delivery”, and “Secure delivery” were found to be the three most important capabilities needed for home delivery companies. The results showed that the model is able to effectively assist organizations in constructing or assessing their organizational capabilities; in addition, organizations can adjust their service profiles to adapt to today’s turbulent business environment and rapidly changing consumer demands.
Highlights
The upsurge in e-commerce resulted in the growth of the delivery industry, which changed consumer behavior and promoted many emerging business models
The core competency is the basis of promoting a competitive advantage for any organization; this study proposes an assessment model for home delivery companies to identify their capabilities and compare with their competitors to determine their core competitiveness, which can be used to further build better operational strategies to avoid a price war
This study proposes six basic capabilities for the home delivery industry, which are (1) specific assets; (2) cost control, which refers to the ability to manage internal operating costs; (3) the number of warehouses, which includes the number of transshipment centers; (4) professional ethics, which are principles that govern the behaviors of employees in the business environment; (5) operating equipment, which refers to the amount of mechanical equipment and number of transportation vehicles; and (6) human resources, which refers to employee characteristics including the ability to quickly respond to customers, friendly service attitude, and employee training and development
Summary
The upsurge in e-commerce resulted in the growth of the delivery industry, which changed consumer behavior and promoted many emerging business models. The growth in e-commerce along with rapid economic development and changes in consumption patterns made it difficult for the traditional logistics industry business model to meet user needs, prompting logistics service providers to effectively enhance their competitiveness. It is necessary to find a systematic method to help them effectively assess their current organizational capabilities, develop service profiles, and formulate competitive strategies to adapt to the turbulent business environment and rapidly changing consumer needs. Several studies have used resource-based view (RBV) to determine vital organizational resources and capabilities and found that qualities such as “rare”, “valuable”, “irreplaceable”, and “incapable of imitating” form the basis of a company’s sustainable competitive advantage [2,3].
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