Coopetition in the Business Landscape: Shaping Strategies, Paradoxes, and Future Prospects

Abstract

In today’s rapidly evolving business landscape, coopetition has emerged as a powerful strategy for organizations seeking sustainable growth and competitive advantage. Coopetition is a blend of cooperation and competition between inside or within firms, or across industries (Bengtsson & Kock, 2014). The increased interest in coopetition research stems from its widespread existence as a common industry practice and its inherent paradoxical nature (Gernsheimer et al., 2024; Leite et al., 2018). This special issue is inspired by the different themes and approaches to coopetition research, focusing on its multiple implications. Although there is a substantial advancement on coopetition, both theoretically and management- like, still exist gaps that require further development. These gaps include delving into the societal impacts of coopetition, its role to generate sustainable development, the dynamics of multimarket coopetition, the intra-firm coopetition, and its consequences within firms, as well as the complex processes to implement coopetitive strategies within firms’ networks.