分享经济组织的资源管理和能力构建互动过程——基于资源编排理论视角的多案例研究

Sharing Economy Organizations,Interactive Process of Resource Management and Capacity Building:A Multi-case Study from the Perspective of Resource Orchestration

为什么以分享经济为载体的新兴企业组织(或称分享经济组织)能在短时间内获得高成长?资源编排理论作为连接组织资源行动和动态能力的桥梁,提供了一个新的理论视角。本文基于理论抽样对滴滴出行、得到、哈啰出行三个企业进行跨案例对比研究,通过对多来源数据资料的逐级编码,识别出组织发展中资源管理与能力构建互动过程的三个核心机制:第一,价值识别;第二,技术赋能;第三,价值重构。文章响应了学者们对分享经济组织研究的呼吁,揭示了分享经济组织中资源价值再实现的路径,实现了资源编排理论在分享经济和数字经济环境下的融通,探讨了分享经济组织设计理念的可行性。

Why could sharing economy organizations achieve high growth in a short period? The lack of superior resources in the sharing economy organizations contradicts the assumption of the resource-based view and breaks through the definition of heterogeneous characteristics of resources. However,the sharing economy organizations have achieved an elaborate orchestration of the connected resources,showing a rapid response and strong adaptability to external environmental changes. Although existing research has developed from multiple perspectives,none of them explains why such organizations can obtain a rapidly developing capability foundation. The contradictions between the robust performance of sharing economy organizations in reality and the lack of academic research lead the scholars to call for more studies to enrich theoretical explanations. Studying how and why the sharing economy organizations can realize the rapid growth through the interaction of resource management and capacity building,and exploring the internal mechanisms are of great significance for understanding the unique growth motivations of sharing economy organizations.Resource orchestration theory provides a new theoretical perspective as a bridge between organizational resource actions and dynamic capabilities. Following the general paradigm of procedural exploratory research,we design a multi-case study. Based on the principle of theoretical sampling in case selection,three companies were selected as research objects,which is: Didi Chuxing,Dedao,and Hellobike. These cases are all sharing economy organizations,which are recognized as high-growth startups,realize the interaction of resources and capabilities,and provide examples for different sharing economy organization models. According to the multi-source data collection method,a triangle of evidence is formed on the data source. Furthermore,the inductive analysis method is adopted in the analysis stage,with the help of Gioia’s data structure display method.This study found that the interactive process of resource management and capacity building of sharing economy organizations can be briefly summarized as "re-implementation of the value of the connected resources under technological empowerment". Besides,three key mechanisms are identified. The first mechanism is value recognition,which refers to the organization’s value recognition ability to identify the value of underutilized parts from the massive and scattered resources and promote the organization to build a resource portfolio. The second mechanism is technological empowerment,which refers to the organization’s technological empowerment ability that activates the resource portfolio and empowers the prosumers,laying a foundation for the further allocation and utilization of resources. The third mechanism is value reconstruction,which means that the organization reconstructs the value of the connected resources,flexibly responds to the environmental changes through the configuration,and reduces transaction costs and organizational costs at the same time.We make three theoretical contributions. First,the research analyzes the interactive process of resource management and capacity building of sharing economy organizations,and uncovers the black box for sharing economy organizations to achieve rapid growth. In this way,we supplements the research on the sharing economy and sharing economy organizations and responds to the call for sharing economy’s organizational level study. Second,it explains the theoretical paradox as to how the sharing economy organizations gain competitive advantage without superior resources,thus deepening the research on the resource-based theory and resource orchestration theory. The technological empowerment mechanism makes the resource orchestration theory more suitable for explaining organizational issues in the context of the digital economy. Third,it enriches the theoretical analysis of the organizational characteristics of sharing economy organizations,expands the research on the business model,and discusses the feasibility of sharing economy organizations as a new organizational design concept.This paper also have practical implications for the sharing economy organization ’s operations. To gain a competitive advantage,sharing economy organizations should be good at using their resource-based difference from traditional economy organizations,continuously improve the existing digital technology platform,and highlight the role of prosumers in sharing economy activities. Future studies can capture the resource uniquess at a deeper level and analyze the sharing economy organizations with more theoretical perspectives,such as,population ecology and institutional ones.