Duality And Tensions In Intra-Organizational Coopetition: Implications For Knowledge Exploration, Exploitation and Retention Dynamics

Abstract

The existing landscape of coopetition research, accounting for increased competitive pressures, highlights the necessity to develop frameworks leading to advance our understanding of organizational interactions, and establishes the importance of building a strong research foundation for the study of internal coopetition. However, despite growing literature examining inter-organizational coopetition, the research field has been little investigated in terms of the nature, dynamics and sustainability of the phenomenon within firms. This contrasts with the fact that, organizations have to cope with an increasing structural complexity as well as professional roles which are drastically changing over the years, requiring employees to acquire new types of knowledge, and to engage in new forms of relationships with other actors. The present thesis aims at operationalizing the phenomenon of intra- organizational coopetition, while a theoretically informed model is developed to assess coopetition outcomes on organizational knowledge processes. The study first offers an in-depth understanding of the drivers, dynamics and outcomes of intra-organizational coopetition. Involving an innovative real-time Delphi panel of experts in the field of coopetition, empirical insights expand and add new dimensions to the existing theoretical knowledge on intra-organizational coopetition. Delphi results provide a set of items relevant for the measure of several aspects underlying intra-firm coopetition. The model is then tested among companies operating the knowledge-intensive industry of software edition. Empirical data reveals that intra-firm coopetition leads to different outcomes at the intra- and inter-unit levels. Future research avenues, operational implications for managerial strategies and practices are discussed along with novel propositions directed at educational bodies.