Unpacking the relationship between coopetition and firm performance

The relationship between coopetition and business performance has been a topic of interest in the strategic marketing literature for several decades, with competing firms cooperating being described as a double-edged sword. It has been argued that the outcomes of coopetition are dependent on boundary conditions and that firms should not ignore these factors.

This PhD thesis investigates the coopetition-performance relationship, unpacking the contingency factors that influence performance outcomes. The extended resource-based relational view of the firm grounds the study, and a survey of 206 manufacturers in the UK tests the study hypotheses using a hierarchical regression model.

The empirical results reveal that the coopetition-performance relationship has a positive association, but it is influenced by various factors, including interfirm coordination and relational embeddedness, strategic marketing resources, competitive intensity, and technological turbulence.

The study contributes to the coopetition field by theoretically aligning and adapting a measurement of coopetition that captures simultaneity of competition and cooperation, examining the association between coopetition and firm performance, and identifying moderators that influence the coopetition-performance relationship. The empirical results show the following key findings:

• At the relationship level, a well-established interfirm coordination and relational embeddedness enhances the coopetition-performance relationship.
• At the internal firm level, strategic marketing resources, counterintuitively, depicted a negative effect on the coopetition-performance relationship.
• Externally, competitive intensity in the business environment shows a negative effect on the relationship between coopetition and performance with technological turbulence having a positive effect on the coopetition-performance relationship.

The findings provide managerial insights on how to facilitate successful performance outcomes through appropriate techniques and management styles when implementing coopetition.