72nd Academy of Management Meeting “The Informal Economy”, Boston, MA: August: 3-7 2012 annualmeeting.aomonline.org/2012

Boston, Massachussets August 3-7 2012

(1) Paper Presentation

Minà, A., DAGNINO, G.B., Dunbar R.L.M. (2012)
“Conceptualizing Coopetition Strategy as Management Innovation”

Session: Competitive and Cooperative Dynamics
Sponsoring Division: TIM
Chair: Uriel Stettner, Tel Aviv University
Scheduled: Tuesday, Aug 7 2012 9:45AM – 11:15AM
Place: Boston Hynes Convention Center in Room 107

Abstract

In this paper we propose to respond to the three questions that follow: Is coopetition a new way of looking at interfirm relationships or a management innovation? If coopetition is a management innovation, what are the drivers that support the emergence of coopetition? What are the social and cognitive processes that unfold over time as coopetition develops? To achieve our aim, we scrutinized systematically the contributions that academic research has provided in shaping and implementing coopetition strategy over the last fifteen years.

On the ground of the categorical analysis of 82 studies on coopetition published in the period 1996-2010, the paper makes four contributions. First, it clarifies how coopetition involves new management practices, processes, and structures to support organizational value creation. Second, drawing on Garud and Rappa’s (1994) socio-cognitive model of technological evolution, we show how the interaction between the scholarly community, beliefs, and artifacts can help explain the emergence and affirmation of coopetition, as well as how such a process may lead to the creation of new theoretical paths. Third, we identify the fundamental ‘hidden’ beliefs (i.e., ontological, epistemological, and ethical assumptions) behind extant management innovation perspectives (i.e., rational, institutional, cultural, and fashion), and consider how the ensuing assumptions chart current coopetition literature. Finally, by performing the categorical analysis of coopetition, we offer a methodological approach suitable to detect the beliefs of scholars and researchers also in other management fields of inquiry.

(2) Symposium Presentation

Symposium: Strategic Management of Platforms and Ecosystems
Sponsoring Division: SAP
Organizer/Chair: Soumaya Ben Letaifa, Université du Quebec à Montreal (UQAM)
Scheduled: Monday, Aug 6 2012 1:15PM – 2:45PM
Place: Boston Hynes Convention Center in Room 308
program.aomonline.org/2012/submission.asp?mode=ShowSession&SessionID=866

DAGNINO, G.B. (2012).
“Coopetitive Value Creation in Nascent Entrepreneurial Ecosystems: The Case of Alma Cube”

Abstract

In the burgeoning coopetition strategy literature, scarce attention has been paid heretofore to the role of coopetitive system of value creation in young and nascent entrepreneurial innovation ecosystems. With the aim of epitomizing the emergence of a coopetitive system of value creation, we draw attention to the fact that coopetition does not simply emerge from coupling competition and cooperation issues, but it rather implies that cooperation and competition merge together to form a new kind of strategic interdependence between firms. Accordingly, coopetition strategy concerns interfirm strategy that allows the firm ecologies involved to manage a partially convergent interest and goal structure and to create value by means of coopetitive advantage.

Drawing on a parsimonious set of theoretical antecedents (Dagnino and Padula, 2002; Dagnino and Mariani, 2007; Padula and Dagnino, 2007), this paper elaborates a comprehensive framework where the emergence of coopetition is linked to the configuration process of early stage entrepreneurial strategies in ecosystems of innovation. In more detail, the paper focuses on the strategic role of entrepreneurial initiatives in bridging the gap between the capability space and the opportunity space, by characterizing entrepreneurial coopetitive strategies and the management of coopetitive ecosystems according to the required objectives of execution vs. innovation. Consequently, we show how coopetition can be the appropriate blaze to spark value creation in nascent entrepreneurial ecologies, where entrepreneurial initiatives have to select their strategic courses of action by capturing or creating (Alvarez and Barney, 2007) the right and well-timed opportunities, not seldom making use of very limited capability base. In this context, coopetition is seen as an appropriate engine of value creation, via the launch and leverage of a mix of value networks and innovation platforms.

A variety of 50 business mini-cases extracted from the initiatives incubated and developed within Almacube, the technological incubator established and run by the University of Bologna in Italy, where coopetition (competition in financial and marketing means and cooperation in material infrastructure and common knowledge base) emerges in early entrepreneurial contexts, vividly illustrate how coopetitive analysis can be supportive of entrepreneurial strategies under the budding regìme of coopetition. Accordingly, the Almacube incubator is observed as an intriguing miniature model of an ecosystem of innovation that fuels coopetition strategies. This model contains in nuce all the actors (both public and private) and underlying mechanisms (economic, organizational, and entrepreneurial) epitomizing an innovation ecosystem.

Finally, the cognate relevant notions of “entrepreneurial coopetitive strategy” and “coopetitive ecosystems management”, where the entrepreneurial actors involved interact coopetitively in a innovation ecology, are introduced and exemplified as purposely appealing concepts effective to recognize the potential for creating and nurturing coopetitive value creation, particularly in nascent entrepreneurial ecosystems.