Coopetition: a systematic review, synthesis, and future research directions

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Web End = Rev Manag Sci (2015) 9:577601

DOI 10.1007/s11846-015-0168-6

REVIEW PAPER

Ricarda B. Bouncken1 Johanna Gast2

Sascha Kraus3 Marcel Bogers4

Received: 9 January 2015 / Accepted: 11 March 2015 / Published online: 24 March 2015 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2015

Abstract Coopetition describes an interorganizational relationship that combines cooperation and competition. During recent years, coopetition has become an important domain for industrial practice which has led to an increasing rate of publications in academic journals. Despite the growing interest, coopetition research is still fragmented, reected by divergent uses of the coopetition concept, a lack of generalizability, and a limited contextual focus. This article presents a systematic literature review and a synthesis of high-quality contributions in this eld with a focus on a general overview of research on coopetition, coopetition as a strategy, and the management of coopetition. By critically evaluating the current body of literature and denitions, and connecting it to other promising domains, we develop a new denition of coopetition and highlight several promising areas for future research, such as the elaboration of theoretical and empirical approaches, the

& Ricarda B. Bouncken [email protected]

Johanna [email protected]

Sascha Kraus [email protected]

Marcel Bogers [email protected]

1 Chair of Strategic Management and Organization, University of Bayreuth, Prieserstr. 2,

95440 Bayreuth, Germany

2 Montpellier Business School MRM, 2300 Avenue Des Moulins, 34185 Montpellier, France

3 Institute for Entrepreneurship, University of Liechtenstein, Frst-Franz-Josef-Strasse, 9490 Vaduz, Liechtenstein

4 Mads Clausen Institute, Faculty of Engineering, University of Southern Denmark, Alsion 2, 6400 Snderborg, Denmark

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578 R. B. Bouncken et al.

consideration of contextual contingencies, and implications for innovation that involves interorganizational knowledge ow.

Keywords Coopetition Cooperation and competition Interorganizational

relationships Systematic review State-of-the-art

JEL Classication D230 L140 M20

1 Introduction

Interorganizational collaborations become an important part of corporate strategy to cope with faster business dynamics and higher uncertainties, for example due to the present unstable economic and business developments in the form of market globalization, aggressive economic competition and intensive know-how diffusion among rms (e.g. Renna and Argoneto 2012;...