LIMITATIONS AND CHALLENGES OF BENCHMARKING – A COMPETENCE-BASED PERSPECTIVE

Jörg Freiling; Sybille Huth

doi:10.1016/S0749-6826(04)08001-1

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Advances in Applied Business Strategy

ISSN: 0749-6826
Series editor(s): Professor Vadake Narayanan

Subject Area: Strategy

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LIMITATIONS AND CHALLENGES OF BENCHMARKING – A COMPETENCE-BASED PERSPECTIVE

Document Information:
Title:	LIMITATIONS AND CHALLENGES OF BENCHMARKING – A COMPETENCE-BASED PERSPECTIVE
Author(s):	Jörg Freiling, Sybille Huth
Volume:	8 Editor(s): Ron Sanchez and Aime Heene ISBN: 978-0-76231-169-9 eISBN: 978-1-84950-321-1
Citation:	Jörg Freiling, Sybille Huth (2005), LIMITATIONS AND CHALLENGES OF BENCHMARKING – A COMPETENCE-BASED PERSPECTIVE, in Ron Sanchez and Aime Heene (ed.) Competence Perspectives on Managing Interfirm Interactions (Advances in Applied Business Strategy, Volume 8), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, pp.3-25
DOI:	10.1016/S0749-6826(04)08001-1 (Permanent URL)
Publisher:	Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Article type:	Chapter Item
Abstract:	Benchmarking has proven itself as a tool of management, not belonging to the typical management fads. Well-known both in research and business practice, employing benchmarking as a means of increasing the competitiveness goes along with considerable problems and challenges. By analyzing the very nature of benchmarking, it turns out that the respective problems can be explained in a comprehensive way by referring to the competence-based view. The paper points out the numerous threats connected with benchmarking. The isolating mechanisms, well-known from competence-based research, help to explain why it can be so difficult for firms to make use of benchmarking effectively. Among others, the concept of the absorptive capacity plays a major role when the real character of benchmarking is to be described. Understanding benchmarking as way to get access to firm-addressable resources, the recognition, the assimilation, and the exploitation of the benchmarked “best practices” represent the crucial steps of an effective benchmarking process. Pointing out the implications of benchmarking by a competence-based analysis and to draw some managerial and theoretical conclusions represent the main objectives of this paper.