Introduction
As a basis for detailed studies of specific innovation cooperation conducted in 2010, a procedure model has been developed to identify missing resources for the realisation of innovation activities. Based on that model, the organisation of management support services for resource procurement can be undertaken. It was used as an instrument in connection to set up the new pilot and demonstration chains and is a result of the experiences made by the Industry Liaison Office set up in Q-PorkChains. These experiences should also be made available to other external institutions and research projects with a similar structure.
The development of the procedure model has been drawn from transaction cost economics and governance aspects, extended by the resource-based view. Especially the resource-based approach covers the biggest part of the theoretical foundations for this analysis (>> more theoretical background information can be found here >>). The resource-based approach is an economic instrument for a structured analysis of enterprise resources. Resources are considered to be company assets at a particular point of time. The developed procedure model has one additional feature. In addition to the available resources of a single company the combination of internally available resources together with external resources might extend the range of available resources to generate a competitive advantage for a single enterprise and ideally create a win-win situation for all actors participating in innovation cooperation projects. Nevertheless, a resource extension or resource combination is associated not only with advantages. Theoretical approaches of transaction cost economics also point out limitations.
The main focus is the analysis of internal resources to identify possible weaknesses which impact successful implementation of innovation activities due to lack of resources. Based on an analysis of available resources, actors can come to a decision as to whether it might be necessary to integrate external resources and further actors in the innovation process. In a second step the study also concentrated on supporting actors to open their institutional boundaries by offering management support services.