Resources prospectively: How actors mobilize resources in business settings

Actors work with resources in putting their business plans into practice, some of which are close-at-hand and some at armʹs length to that business. Furthermore, actors can transform and translate resources in more or less complex ways in bringing them into the realm of a business activity, for instance through a single transactional market exchange or a series of social exchanges, the economic dimensions of which are very much in the background. The IMP groupʹs framings of resources in the Actors, Resources and Activities (ARA) approach and in the Resource Interaction approach form this paperʹs conceptual focus. The paper examines three cases of actors mobilizing resources and emphasizes: (1) The prospective or future-oriented quality of resources, in connection with actorsʹ business plans and activities; (2) The distinct rules, customs and practices in settings that individuals recognize to be more or less economic and more or less social; and (3) The roles and identities of individuals alongside their business units.