Purpose – This paper provides remarkable insight into the structural components of a firm’s core competence
and its development via research and development (R&D) activities for innovation and exporting activities.
Design/methodology/approach – The authors have used a positivist design and a deductive methodology.
The authors have examined the extant literature developing a theoretical framework to empirically investigate
the relationships between a firm’s core competence, organisational learning (OL), tacitness, dynamic capability
and R&D activities. To carry out this investigation, the authors have collected stratified sample data from 330
firms operating in North East England, a peripheral region of England.
Findings – The authors have found that there are indeed significant statistical relationships between these
structural components, R&D activities and a firm’s core competence, and this nexus is pertinent to innovation
and exporting. Furthermore, it is found that North East England is significantly constrained by the lack of
finance, technological capability, experts and brain drain. Based on these findings, the authors propose a
cooperative R&D framework to narrow down these constraints to assist firms in developing core competencies
for innovation and exporting in peripheral regions.
Social implications – There is an urgent need to investigate the incidence of knowledge-driven activities,
R&D, the extent of innovation and exporting activities of firms operating in North East England, a peripheral
region of the United Kingdom (UK).
Originality/value – This study provides an original and systematic investigation of the firm’s core
competence and its formation via key structural components for innovation and exporting within an empirical
framework.