IMPLICATIONS OF COOPETITION FOR INTERNATIONAL COMPETITIVENESS AND INTERNATIONALIZATION OF FIRMS: PERSPECTIVE OF SME AND LARGE COMPANIES

Year 2011, Volume: 3 Issue: 1, 49 - 58, 01.06.2011

Barbara Jankowska

Abstract

The concept of coopetition sheds new light on the way companies behave and the
way in which value for customers and whole economies can be created. The
emergence and growing popularity of simultaneous cooperation and competition
between business actors encourages asking more in depth questions about the
results of this kind of relationship for companies.
This paradoxical phenomenon is becoming more and more popular even among
enterprises from transition economies such as Poland. After twenty years of
building a market economy, Polish firms are becoming able to implement more
sophisticated kinds of business behaviour.
The main aim of this paper is to attempt to recognize the implications of
cooperation with market rivals for companies involved in this type of business
behaviour. The author, by quoting literature written on the subject, presents the
concept of coopetition and the results of coopetition for companies. This short
overview is accompanied by empirical research, which took a form of direct
interviews conducted in 57 companies from one region in Poland. The author
highlights the methodology used to assess the involvement of a firm in
coopetition. The results of the empirical study are discussed paying attention to
the size of business agents – SME and large companies.

Keywords

coopetition, competitiveness, internationalization

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