The objective of this paper is to increase the collective knowledge about coopetition by providing a historical approach of this strategy. The mobilization of a historical approach as a methodology shed lights on the origins of coopetition during Roman Antiquity. Two examples of coopetition in business between traders were found. Furthermore, determinants of emergence of these coopetition strategies are described and provide pertinent information. These interesting results are opposite to the commonly shared idea that coopetition is a new strategy answering the modern complex environment.
This chapter tries to highlight how the three core process of innovation should be organized and managed when the open innovation process concerns direct rivals. We will try to show how OI between competitors impacts each of the three OI process and leads to new potentially fruitful research areas. We will also try to define a research program for OI involving full collaboration with competitors, in the outside-in from a competitor, the inside-out to a competitor and the coupled-innovation process between competitors. We name this strategy Open Coopetition and use OI and coopetition literatures to highlight the main promising research avenues leaded by this new concept
There is considerable interest in studying the risk of sharing knowledge in coopetition for innovation and the managerial solutions to reduce this risk (i.e. misappropriation and opportunism). However, our case study in the pharmaceutical industry highlights that the identified managerial solutions identified in this literature do not completely prevent misappropriation and opportunism. Thus, past research overlooked the fact that in coopetition for innovation, firms might need to share knowledge even if this knowledge is not protected from misappropriation and opportunism. Our case study digs deeper into the implementation of a risky knowledge sharing in coopetition.
