Resource strategy of a firm: investment models and Russian specifics

In the situation of resources limitation, which the Russian economy has been facing with in the recent years, it is important to set the priorities and define the factors that influence on the way investments are made into the resources of firms. The study is directed at the explanation of choosing an investment model of different kinds of resources in Russian companies. To justify the choice of a model the authors offer to use the control criteria over the resources, determined by a bungle of property rights of an investor. Clarifying the economical category ‘resources’ from the position of the resource-based view and relational view let the authors distinguish 2 models of attracting resources: the model, focused on the acquisition of assets, and the model, focused on the temporary mobilization of resources available in the network or market. In the course of critical comprehension of choosing this or that model the three groups of factors were defined. The global changes of conditions and factors of business operation belong to the first group. The second group is connected to the specifics of institutional environment of Russian business. The third group of factors is defined by the properties of the resources themselves, the advisability of investing into them in conditions of a certain institutional environment. The systematic assessment of all factors let the authors to make a conclusion that the global trend is businesses switching to the model, focused on temporary mobilization of resources available in the network. This fact is due the ratio of transactional and transformational costs while obtaining property rights for a resource.The influence of the Russian institutional environment led to the use of an intermediate resource investment model by firms. This model is based on the hybrid mode of a business structure characterized by strict barriers and institutional mechanisms of coordination. Investors choose tangible and relational assets as an investment object and they are not willing to invest into human capital and organizational resources. The authors made the conclusion the use of this strategy of attracting resources is not effective for the Russian economy in the long run.