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Title: Competitive advantage versus cooperation in strategic management: a framework for success

Authors: Dinko Herman Boikanyo

Addresses: Department of Business Management, University of Johannesburg, Auckland Park, Johannesburg, South Africa

Abstract: Strategic management has traditionally emphasised competitive advantage as the cornerstone of firm success through frameworks such as Porter's positioning and the resource-based view (RBV). However, globalisation, digital transformation, and interfirm interdependencies have made cooperation an equally critical strategic logic. This conceptual paper addresses the gap in literature that treats these logics as mutually exclusive by proposing an integrated framework for achieving coopetitive advantage, the simultaneous pursuit of competition and cooperation. Drawing on RBV, dynamic capabilities theory, and coopetition grounded in game theory, the framework identifies drivers of competitive and cooperative advantage, contextual moderators, and strategic outcomes, including innovation, resilience, and value co-creation. The paper contributes theoretically by unifying fragmented perspectives and practically by offering guidance for managers operating in ecosystems, platform markets and global supply chains. It also outlines directions for empirical validation and contextual extension.

Keywords: alliance strategies; competitive advantage; cooperation; coopetition; dynamic capabilities; game theory; resource-based views; RBV; strategy; strategic alliance; strategic management; value co-creation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBEX.2026.152364

International Journal of Business Excellence, 2026 Vol.38 No.8, pp.1 - 20

Received: 19 Jul 2025
Accepted: 01 Dec 2025
Published online: 16 Mar 2026 *