The dark-side of coopetition: it’s not what you say, but the way that you do it

This study, underpinned by the Resource-Based View, contributes to our understanding of the dark-side of marketing regarding unwanted and undesirable behaviour that may be detrimental to businesses. It involves regional coopetition (simultaneous collaboration and competition) within New Zealand’s wine sector. Owner-managers of 25 vineyards were interviewed to understand their views towards the potential paradox of coopetition together with another 13 managers that worked at the cellar door (38 interviews in total); also, observations of employees at 13 cellar doors to establish whether what owner-managers claimed was implemented as a ‘strategy as practice’ to customers. In contributing to knowledge, the study finds that although owner-managers of under-resourced firms may advocate the benefits of coopetition to enhance performance, observations indicate that certain front-line employees’ practices were inconsistent with the views of owner-managers. The findings have implications for the way owner-managers recruit, train and incentivise employees to facilitate performance-enhancing service marketing strategies.