Title: Co-opetition in the boating industry and collective managerial capacity

Authors: Jean-Sébastien Lacam; David Salvetat

Addresses: ESSCA Business School, 1 rue Lakanal, BP 40348, 49003 Angers cedex 01, France ' ESSCA Business School, 1 rue Lakanal, BP 40348, 49003 Angers cedex 01, France

Abstract: Co-opetition allows small businesses to pool their human resources to introduce new lines of business and/or exploit new geographic markets. Co-opetition is nevertheless a difficult strategy to organise because of its dual nature. The management of the collaborators involved in a project plays a role in achieving the collective and individual objectives pursued by the firms involved. The relationship between the management of human resources during co-opetition and the objectives related to the cooperative sector's activity and territory policies deserves to be addressed. Our empirical study of the leaders of 106 French small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) and mid-cap boating firms reveals that specialised and national co-opetition encourages individual learning linked to the exposure of the human resources of its participants. Conversely, the complexity of a diversified and international co-opetition creates a new collective managerial capacity resulting from the firms' collaborative efforts.

Keywords: co-opetition; managerial capacity; human resources; HR; geographic strategy; sector strategy; small and medium-sized enterprise; SMEs.

DOI: 10.1504/IJESB.2019.099883

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, 2019 Vol.37 No.1, pp.109 - 135

Received: 02 Sep 2017
Accepted: 01 Nov 2017

Published online: 26 May 2019 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article