infonet-economy

The hyper-specialization of firms and the changing roles of customers towards active contributors in value creation makes the integration of resources from multiple small actors a critical factor for firm success. Unfortunately, the mechanisms by which firms can integrate the resources of these numerous small actors are not well understood in the strategic management literature so far. We utilized a multiple case study approach of nine virtual power plants to unveil these mechanisms of resource integration. We find that the practices of resource integration are contingent on the degree of resource interaction and organizational interaction between the actors and that four distinct patterns of resource integration can be distinguished and we thereby develop an emerging framework for resource integration in alliance portfolios.