Competency-based E-assessment in Project Management and Firm Performance: a Case Study

Firm performance is strongly related to growth and dependent on competitive advantage. Relying on the fact that competitive advantage is not given by market power, but comes from inside, from employees’ competences, current paper underlines the correlation between investments in education and training and increased earning for business. A case study was designed to explore whether the project management knowledge checked by an eassessment application, as a learning tool, influences the profitability, the customer satisfaction and the skill development maturity, as firms’ performance indicators. The e-assessment application involved in the study is based on a well-known project management standard, offered by International Project Management Association. The subjects of the study were the users of the e-assessment application: 77 employees working in 19 Romanian firms, mainly from IT and consulting business sector. The positive correlation between the three considered performance indicators and companies’ growth is strengthened by the fact that the analyzed domain was project management, a key factor in economic development. Except proving the influence of competences development through e-assessment on enterprise performance, the current paper reveals the various valences of competences assessment within a firm, as well as the role of e-assessment in knowledge creation chain. Key-Words: firms’ performance, assessment systems, project management, competences, e-assessment, knowledge creation