Enhancing Competences for Competitive Advantage -- Copyright page -- Contents -- List of contributors -- Introduction -- Chapter 1. Lobbying: strategies to make a firm's competences generate value -- Introduction -- Theory -- Method -- Results -- Summary and outlook -- References -- Appendix. Check of trustworthiness by applying the criteria of Flint et al. (2002) -- Chapter 2. Competence-based strategies of service transition -- 1. The relevance of services for manufacturing firms: service transition as a source of growth and competitive advantage -- 2. A resource-based view of service transition -- 3. The role of services in the industry life cycle -- 4. Service transition in the German mechanical engineering industry -- 5. Conclusion: transformation trajectory from hardware manufacturers to service providers -- References -- Chapter 3. Enhancing the inflow of knowledge: elaborating the absorptive capacity cycle in SMEs -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Absorptive capacity in SMEs: state of the field -- 3. Methods -- 4. Case study results: KM project as a means to facilitate AC -- 5. Discussion and conclusion -- References -- Chapter 4. Toyota's competitive advantage: path dependency, dynamic capabilities, and sources of inimitability - a contrastive study with Nissan -- Introduction -- The Japanese automobile industry in the early post-war years -- Resource heterogeneity: Toyota versus Nissan -- The Toyota keiretsu and the Nissan keiretsu - similar but different -- Competitive advantage: paths, processes, and inimitability -- Conclusions and future research -- Notes -- References -- Chapter 5. Toward the theory of temporary competitive advantage in internationalization -- Introduction -- Dynamic resource-based internationalization -- Data analysis and methodology -- Case: the global test and measurement sector -- Discussion -- Note -- References.

Chapter 6. Relational quality, alliance capability, and alliance performance: an integrated framework -- Introduction -- Theoretical background -- Relational quality and alliance performance -- Alliance capability and alliance performance -- Relational quality, alliance capability, and alliance performance -- Discussion and conclusion -- Notes -- References -- Chapter 7. How to build alliance capability: A life cycle approach -- 1. Introduction -- 2. The concept of alliance capability and alliance experience -- 3. Alliance capability throughout the alliance life cycle -- 4. Supporting alliance capability throughout the ALC -- 5. Conclusion -- References -- Chapter 8. Modeling entrepreneurial action choice: from intent through rhetoric to action -- Entrepreneurial action choices -- Components affecting entrepreneurial action choice -- Action choice and computational modeling -- Hypotheses -- Results -- Discussion -- References -- Chapter 9. Self-organization of competency development and the role of managers -- 1. Research question -- 2. Theoretical approaches as a framework of reference -- 3. Methodological steps -- 4. Results -- 5. Summary and conclusion -- Note -- References.