Modeling Simultaneous Cooperation and Competition Among Enterprises

Coopetition (simultaneous cooperation and competition) between organizations has emerged as a prominent and critical industrial practice that allows organizations to increase combined welfare through cooperation while maximizing individual gains through competition. The formulation and enactment of such an organizational strategy entails designing and operating information systems that maximize benefits while minimizing costs from concomitant cooperation and competition. Coopetition raises new concerns and considerations about the design of data, processes, and interfaces of information systems. Analyzing coopetition can be challenging since cooperation and competition are paradoxical social behaviors that are undergirded by contradictory logics, hypotheses, and assumptions. Therefore, the ability of decision-makers to represent and reason about coopetition in a structured and systematic manner can be beneficial as it can support their efforts to co-design organizational strategies and information systems. This paper presents insights about the initial stages of an exploratory research project that is focused on the development of a modeling framework to support representation and reasoning of interorganizational coopetitive strategies. The objectives of this paper are to outline the goals of this research project which include: (1) identifying the primary characteristics for modeling and analyzing coopetitive relationships, as well as (2) proposing artefacts for expressing and evaluating these relationships

Sustainability and Resilience in Alliance-Driven Manufacturing Ecosystems: A Strategic Conceptual Modeling Perspective

The challenge of sustainability rests on the ability of organizations to change their practices to meet the needs of current and future generations. To date, most research on organizational change has focused on how to change within a single organization. However, an increasing number of sustainability challenges require changes across multiple organizations. In this paper, we summarize strategic challenges faced in such a setting and outline a conceptual modeling approach for strategic analysis of alliance-driven solutions. We illustrate our ideas with a case study in digital agriculture, a field particularly relevant to sustainability, and end with the identification of issues for further research

Coopetition as an emerging organisational strategy for supply chain resilience: an exploratory study of the UKCS oil and gas sector.

Coopetition, a form of inter-organisational relationship that combines competitive and collaborative theories, has gained the interests of academics and practitioners of inter-organisational studies. However, despite numerous extensive coopetition reviews, several questions remain unanswered - especially with regards to the formation of the strategy. Although studies have acknowledged that coopetition can occur unintentionally, particularly among organisations in pre-existing collaborative relationships, it remains unclear how or if the nature of formation affects the performance or outcome of the coopetitive relationship. It is therefore necesssary for continued research efforts into the study of coopetition as an emergent strategy. This research addresses issues in coopetition studies with the specific aim of uncovering the relationship between the formation of coopetition alliances and its performance. The study argues that antecedents for successful intentional coopetition may not apply in coopetition that emerges unintentionally. Using the UK Oil and Gas Industry as a case study, this research investigates some of the factors that can improve the performance of emergent coopetition, such as its management, form of governance and the role of dedicated alliance functions. The study compares the antecedents for successful deliberate coopetition with the performance of unintentional coopetition. Drawing upon research from inter-organisational studies and interviews of oil and gas industry experts, this study proposes some hypotheses and a conceptual model relating to the interactions of the governance structure, control mechanisms, and management on the performance of both intentional and unintentional coopetition. Additionally, it investigates the role of supply chain flexibility on coopetition performance. The structural equation model is tested using empirical data obtained through web-based questionnaires from 380 supply chain professionals in the oil and gas industry. The results of this study confirm that the management technique and control mechanisms have a significant effect on the outcome of both intentional and unintentional coopetition. In contrast, the flexibility of the supply chain has little impact on the performance of the alliance. The study contributes to inter-organisational studies by demonstrating that the presence of a dedicated alliance function and contractual agreements are critical antecedents in the formation of a coopetitive alliance, including emergent coopetition. The study also highlights its limitations and recommends areas for further research

Collaborating with competitors: pitfalls and paybacks

Inter-firm collaborations have become an indispensable part of business strategy to deal with faster competitive dynamics and higher market and environmental uncertainties. Interestingly, research has found that around half of all cooperative relationships take place between competitors. Termed as coopetition , it refers to the simultaneous cooperation and competition between at least two actors. Over the past two decades, coopetition has become an important domain for industrial practice which has led to increasing research interest by scholars worldwide with a wide range of subjects studied within the extant body of literature. Despite the growing interest, coopetition research is still fragmented and is dominated by conceptual research. This entails limitations to knowledge and understanding reflected by heterogeneous uses of the coopetition concept (mixed definitions and a lack of clarity in how to apply coopetition successfully), a lack of generalisability, and a limited number of quantitative studies. Coopetition scholars commonly argue that competitors rarely cooperate in activities that are close to customers, known as output activities (e.g., sales and marketing), but instead argue that they mostly cooperate in activities far from the customer, referred to as input activities (e.g., R&D, logistics, and NPD). However, it has been found in real world business examples that competitors also cooperate in output activities. In this study these two distinct types of coopetition are termed as internally focused coopetition (cooperating with competitors in input activities) and externally focused coopetition (cooperating with competitors in output activities). This is the first study synthesising these two types of coopetition in one conceptual model, and examining their individual paybacks and pitfalls. After the development of the conceptual model based on the relevant literature, a cross-sectional research design is adopted and an online survey is implemented among Chief Operating Officers and Managing Directors in UK high-tech companies. A total of 148 completed questionnaires are collected. Data analysis employs a two-stage approach, which includes a measurement model assessment and a structural model assessment. The results indicate that both internally and externally focused coopetition can help firms to develop new knowledge-based resources and capabilities. However, these two types of coopetition also have different paybacks and pitfalls. Even though the new innovation knowledge-based resources and capabilities gained from internally focused coopetition can lead to better business efficiency and effectiveness, firms also lose uniqueness in their existing knowledge-based resources and capabilities (a key tenet of competitive advantage in resource- and knowledge-based theories). In contrast, externally focused coopetition has no significant impact on uniqueness, but the new marketing knowledge-based resources and capabilities negatively influence business efficiency and effectiveness. It has also been found that when firms perceive that their competitors are behaving opportunistically, they tend to do the same and appropriate more knowledge-based resources and capabilities from the collective value created. Competitors opportunism also renders more loss of uniqueness, which in turn worsens business performance. This research provides greater clarity and understanding to scholars of the workings of coopetition for deriving new knowledge-based resources and capabilities and extrapolating performance benefits from this. This work also illuminates situations where coopetition does not result in the perceived win-win-win situations indicated in literature. Based on these results, a number of theoretical and managerial contributions are developed. Principally, (1) this is the first study that conceptualises and operationalises internally and externally focused coopetition, and their individual knowledge-based outcomes are analysed from a knowledge-based view; (2) how competitors opportunism affects the dynamics of coopetition is better understood from a game theoretical perspective; (3) this study extends the understanding of business performance outcomes of coopetition

Influence of Coopetition on Firm Financial Performance: Mediating Role of Open Innovation Performance

It is essential for a firm to take advantage of the rising phenomenon of coopetition across multiple firms and marketplaces in today's highly competitive climate to enhance its financial performance. Hence, this study contributes to the existing body of literature by probing the link between coopetition and the success of open innovation initiatives in Pakistani SMEs. The failure of Pakistani SMEs to establish a controlled method of coopetition has had a deleterious effect on financial performance. The current research is conducted to identify the low open innovation problem in Pakistani small and medium enterprises (SMEs), which has a negative effect on financial performance. It aims to investigate the impact of coopetition on financial performance and the mediating function of the firm’s open innovation performance in it. To achieve this objective, a survey employing a cross-sectional research design was conducted. The respondents were selected from SMEs operating in the service sector in the cities of Bahawalpur, Multan, and Lodhran in Pakistan. A total of 155 questionnaires were distributed among managerial employees of the above SMEs. The data collected from the responses to the questionnaires was analyzed through Partial Least Square-Structure Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). It was found that coopetition has a strong role in boosting financial performance. The importance of trust and dependence in crafting an effective coopetition strategy is also emphasized in this research

Walking the Tightrope: Coopetition Capability Construct and Its Role in Value Creation

Prior research emphasizes the paradoxical nature of coopetition and the need for specialized capabilities—coopetition capability—to deal effectively with opportunities and challenges stemming from the simultaneous pursuit of cooperation and competition and to create superior value. However, we know little about the underlying conceptual properties of coopetition capability (construct clarity) and lack a reliable and valid scale to measure it (construct validity). We conduct a study in three phases to address this critical gap. First, building on paradox literature, we conceptualize coopetition capability as a multidimensional construct reflected by three underlying dimensions: coopetition mindset, analytical acumen, and executional skills. Second, we develop a 15-item psychometrically valid scale using a sample of 647 coopetitive alliances in high-technology sectors. Finally, using a matched sample of 536 coopetitive alliances, we extend the focal construct's nomological network by examining two relationships: coopetition experience's impact on coopetition capability and the effect of coopetition capability on the relationship between the coopetition paradox and value creation. Overall, our paper lays a foundation for deeper theory development and empirical research on coopetition by providing much-needed construct clarity and psychometrically valid measures for coopetition capability

Coopetition in an open-source way : lessons from mobile and cloud computing infrastructures

An increasing amount of technology is no longer developed in-house. Instead, we are in a new age where technology is developed by a networked community of individuals and organizations, who base their relations to each other on mutual interest. Advances arising from research in platforms, ecosystems, and infrastructures can provide valuable knowledge for better understanding and explaining technology development among a network of firms. More surprisingly, recent research suggests that technology can be jointly developed by rival competing firms in an open-source way. For instance, it is known that the mobile device makers Apple and Samsung continued collaborating in open-source projects while running expensive patent wars in the courts. On top of multidisciplinary theory in open-source software, cooperation among competitors (aka coopetition) and digital infrastructures, I (and my coauthors) explored how rival firms cooperate in the joint development of open-source infrastructures. While assimilating a wide variety of paradigms and analytical approaches, this doctoral research combined the qualitative analysis of naturally occurring data (QA) with the mining of software repositories (MSR) and social network analysis (SNA) within a set of case studies. By turning to the mobile and cloud computing industries in general, and the WebKit and OpenStack opensource infrastructures in particular, we found out that qualitative ethnographic materials, combined with social network visualizations, provide a rich medium that enables a better understanding of competitive and cooperative issues that are simultaneously present and interconnected in open-source infrastructures. Our research contributes back to managerial literature in coopetition strategy, but more importantly to Information Systems by addressing both cooperation and competition within the development of high-networked open-source infrastructures.Yhä suurempaa osaa teknologiasta ei enää kehitetä organisaatioiden omasta toimesta. Sen sijaan, olemme uudella aikakaudella jossa teknologiaa kehitetään verkostoituneessa yksilöiden ja organisaatioiden yhteisössä, missä toimitaan perustuen yhteiseen tavoitteeseen. Alustojen, ekosysteemien ja infrastruktuurien tutkimuksen tulokset voivat tuottaa arvokasta tietämystä teknologian kehittämisestä yritysten verkostossa. Erityisesti tuore tutkimustieto osoittaa että kilpailevat yritykset voivat yhdessä kehittää teknologiaa avoimeen lähdekoodiin perustuvilla käytännöillä. Esimerkiksi tiedetään että mobiililaitteiden valmistajat Apple ja Samsung tekivät yhteistyötä avoimen lähdekoodin projekteissa ja kävivät samaan aikaan kalliita patenttitaistoja eri oikeusfoorumeissa. Perustuen monitieteiseen teoriaan avoimen lähdekoodin ohjelmistoista, yhteistyöstä kilpailijoiden kesken (coopetition) sekä digitaalisista infrastruktuureista, minä (ja kanssakirjoittajani) tutkimme miten kilpailevat yritykset tekevät yhteistyötä avoimen lähdekoodin infrastruktuurien kehityksessä. Sulauttaessaan runsaan joukon paradigmoja ja analyyttisiä lähestymistapoja case-joukon puitteissa, tämä väitöskirjatutkimus yhdisti luonnollisesti esiintyvän datan kvantitatiivisen analyysin ohjelmapakettivarastojen louhintaan ja sosiaalisten verkostojen analyysiin. Tutkiessamme mobiili- ja pilvipalveluiden teollisuudenaloja yleisesti, ja WebKit ja OpenStack avoimen lähdekoodin infrastruktuureja erityisesti, havaitsimme että kvalitatiiviset etnografiset materiaalit yhdistettyinä sosiaalisten verkostojen visualisointiin tuottavat rikkaan aineiston joka mahdollistaa avoimen lähdekoodin infrastruktuuriin samanaikaisesti liittyvien kilpailullisten ja yhteistyökuvioiden hyvän ymmärtämisen. Tutkimuksemme antaa oman panoksensa johdon kirjallisuuteen coopetition strategy -alueella, mutta sitäkin enemmän tietojärjestelmätieteeseen, läpikäymällä sekä yhteistyötä että kilpailua tiiviisti verkostoituneessa avoimen lähdekoodin infrastruktuurien kehitystoiminnassaUma crescente quantidade de tecnologia não é desenvolvida internamente por uma só organização. Em vez disso, estamos em uma nova era em que a tecnologia é desenvolvida por uma comunidade de indivíduos e organizações que baseiam suas relações umas com as outras numa rede de interesse mútuo. Os avanços teórico decorrentes da pesquisa em plataformas computacionais, ecossistemas e infraestruturas digitais fornecem conhecimentos valiosos para uma melhor compreensão e explicação do desenvolvimento tecnológico por uma rede de multiplas empresas. Mais surpreendentemente, pesquisas recentes sugerem que tecnologia pode ser desenvolvida conjuntamente por empresas rivais concorrentes e de uma forma aberta (em código aberto). Por exemplo, sabe-se que os fabricantes de dispositivos móveis Apple e Samsung continuam a colaborar em projetos de código aberto ao mesmo tempo que se confrontam em caras guerras de patentes nos tribunais. Baseados no conhecimento científico de software de código aberto, de cooperação entre concorrentes (também conhecida como coopetição) e de infraestruturas digitais, eu e os meus co-autores exploramos como empresas concorrentes cooperam no desenvolvimento conjunto de infraestruturas de código aberto. Ao utilizar uma variedade de paradigmas e abordagens analíticas, esta pesquisa de doutoramento combinou a análise qualitativa de dados de ocorrência natural (QA) com a análise de repositórios de softwares (MSR) e a análise de redes sociais (SNA) dentro de um conjunto de estudos de casos. Ao investigar as industrias de technologias móveis e de computação em nuvem em geral, e as infraestruturas em código aberto WebKit e OpenStack, em particular, descobrimos que o material etnográfico qualitativo, combinado com visualizações de redes sociais, fornece um meio rico que permite uma melhor compreensão das problemas competitivos e cooperativos que estão simultaneamente presentes e interligados em infraestruturas de código aberto. A nossa pesquisa contribui para a literatura em gestão estratégica e coompetição, mas mais importante para literatura em Sistemas de Informação, abordando a cooperação e concorrência no desenvolvimento de infraestruturas de código aberto por uma rede the indivíduos e organizações em interesse mútuo

Goal modelling for strategic dependency analysis in destination management

Purpose: The paper suggests goal modelling as a method for the strategic analysis in tourism destinations. Destination management is quite complex and challenging and requires deep understanding of the intentions, the roles and the strategies of the various stakeholders. Methods: This paper identifies the challenges and major issues of destination management, evaluates the capacity of goal modelling to address them and demonstrates the use of goal modelling for stakeholder and strategic analysis. Results: The paper provides a holistic, multi-level modelling approach that begins with stakeholder analysis, continues with the analysis of strategic dependencies between stakeholders and ends with the analysis of the strategic alignment of the Destination Management Systems. Goal modelling is used for the analysis of the roles and functions of stakeholders, the analysis of the interdependencies between stakeholders in terms of goals, tasks and resources, the selection between alternative business configurations, and the business model and strategic analysis. Implications: Three important issues of destination management are addressed: stakeholder analysis, strategic dependency analysis, and strategic alignment of information systems. The formalism of goal modelling can provide rigor and visualization in the analysis of the complex relationships in destination management

Coopetition (Contemporaneous Cooperation and Competition) Among Nonprofit Arts Organizations: The Case of Symphony Orchestras

Coopetition was formalized as a strategic management concept in the early 1990s by Ray Noorda, CEO of Novell, who coined the term and proposed that often, in order to achieve growth in an organization or industry, You have to cooperate and compete at the same time (Davis 1993). Although the individual ideas of cooperation and competition in the business environment have been well-established for some time, the formal idea of contemporaneous cooperation and competition, or cooperation among competitors, is relatively new in business and academic literature. Why is this hybrid concept important? The literature to date on coopetition and its antecedents suggests that they constitute a phenomenon that extends beyond the individual paradoxical constructs of competition and cooperation (Chen 2002). In a business environment that has historically stressed competitive advantage, the assertion that the best strategy often has multiple winners is a powerful one (Brandenburger and Nalebuff 1996). This research expands the concept of coopetition to an area in which it has not yet been studied: the nonprofit arts sector. It provides a comprehensive literature review, a posited model of coopetition and related hypotheses, and two proposed studies: a qualitative exploratory study to examine coopetition in the nonprofit arts setting, and a quantitative study to empirically assess the model and hypotheses. Contributions of this research include: (1) an in-depth literature review of the first ten years of theoretical and empirical research on the concept of coopetition, (2) a literature review of the concepts of competition and cooperation in the context of the nonprofit arts environment, (3) presentation of a conceptual framework of coopetition in the nonprofit arts environment and related hypotheses based on the literature, and (4) qualitative and quantitative studies of the concept of coopetition in a nonprofit arts setting and a resulting understanding of how nonprofit arts coopetition in artistic, operational, marketing, and fund development contexts has the potential to impact organizational improvement in terms of participant organizational financial performance and organizational effectiveness. From an academic standpoint, this research adds to the literature in the areas of nonprofit marketing/management and coopetition/strategic management. From a nonprofit arts management and marketing standpoint, the qualitative and quantitative studies indicate that the range of potential strategic and tactical options for achieving organizational improvement is broader than traditionally contemplated, with opportunities that can be envisioned and leveraged through coopetition