How to swim with sharks? The antecedents and consequences of coopetition

Coopetition, the phenomenon in which firms are simultaneously involved in cooperation and competition, is intriguing in both theoretical and practical terms. Coopetition scholars have started to study the innovation performance implications of the firms’ coopetition. In this dissertation, we point to some important gaps in the existing coopetition literature, which treated direct coopetitors as the same by ignoring their heterogeneity and indirect connections with other competitors via them and was lack of guidance for governance choice.
To advance our understanding of coopetition for innovation, we conduct three empirical projects using unique data from the global solar photovoltaic industry. In chapter 2, we consider the heterogeneity of coopetitors in terms of technological and market overlaps with coopetitors and investigate the influence on breakthrough inventions. In chapter 3, we examine the impact of indirect coopetition network on focal firms’ knowledge recombinant capabilities, which is contingent on focal firms’ small-world structures of internal collaboration network and internal technology network. In chapter 4, we further explore the impact of firms’ network position on the governance choice in specific coopetitive dyads, which guides managers to design the collaboration with coopetitors and avoid value appropriation risks in coopetition for innovation. Together, the findings of this dissertation increase our insights into value creation and appropriation of coopetition, a richer network perspective on coopetition, and the governance of coopetitive relationships.