The strategic nature of the resources generated by territorial anchoring: proposal for an assessment grid for SMEs
The inclusion of territorial anchoring (TA) in the components of a CSR policy sometimes leads to the development of a proselytic speech towards business leaders and entrepreneurs. It is important for business leaders to adopt a critical attitude in order to consider the SME’s interest of participating in collective actions. How to analyze the nature of the strategic resources generated by TA from an SME’s point of view? Firstly, this paper theoretically analyzes the sustainable competitive advantage that resources generated by TA are able to create. An analysis grid based on the Barney’s VRIO model is proposed. It highlights the characteristics of SME/territory interactions based on the possibility of relying on the strategic dimension of these resources. Secondly, the authors carry out four SME case studies to validate the operational capacity of this analysis grid and to adapt this tool.