Approaches to integration processes in the context of various scientific concepts of firm theory

The article is devoted to the analysis of methodological approaches in the study of integration processes. The paper provides a historical retrospective of research development, reveals the specifics of macro and microeconomic approaches, and shows the significance of the technological concept of the firm theory for the development of scientific analysis of business systems integration problems. The paper substantiates the importance of modern conceptual approaches in the study of vertical integration of enterprises. The methodology of studying integration as a phenomenon of modern economic relations is based on a systematic approach that allows us to consider the specifics of this economic category from the point of view of its essential Trinity as a system, process and result. The methodological approach to the study of the system as a whole allows us to identify the laws of formation of integrated systems, identify their elements and the principles of transformation of the latter as a result of integration processes. The study of integration from the point of view of process analysis reveals the sequence of stages of the emergence and development of integrated associations, predicts and regulates their dynamics in a fixed time interval. The analysis of integration from the point of view of the result reflects the moment of fixing the receipt of a certain integrated product during the integration process. Due to the variety of forms and models of integration as an economic phenomenon, it is quite difficult to give a single generalizing definition of this definition. At each specific stage of the development of scientific research on integration processes, various conceptual positions emerged that differ in the initial postulate and principles of analysis, the specifics of the subject of research and the characteristics of the purpose and functions of integration, tasks and principles of modeling integration processes.