Title: Coopetition research: towards a better understanding of past trends and future directions

Authors: Johanna Gast; Matthias Filser; Katherine Gundolf; Sascha Kraus

Addresses: Montpellier Business School – MRM, 2300, Avenue des Moulins, 34185 Montpellier, France ' Institute for Entrepreneurship, University of Liechtenstein, Fürst-Franz-Josef-Strasse, 9490 Vaduz, Liechtenstein ' Montpellier Business School – MRM, 2300, Avenue des Moulins, 34185 Montpellier, France ' Institute for Entrepreneurship, University of Liechtenstein, Fürst-Franz-Josef-Strasse, 9490 Vaduz, Liechtenstein

Abstract: Over the past two decades, coopetition received growing attention by practitioners and scholars worldwide with a wide range of subjects explored within the current body of literature. Despite the constantly growing number of scientific publications, the current literature lacks a comprehensive and critical overview of past and present research accomplishments. Based on the first citation analysis in this field, we present three topical clusters which help us to indicate the evolution path of coopetition research. Additionally, the current literature state is studied by means of a systematic literature review reflecting the major research avenues. By combining and comparing the results of these two analyses, the paper concludes by proposing possible future research directions. To advance our current understanding of coopetition, we suggest that forthcoming research explores coopetition in the contexts of startups and family firms and extends our knowledge on the protection mechanisms which are necessary for coopeting successfully.

Keywords: coopetition; cooperation; competition; inter-firm relationships; entrepreneurship; startups; family firms; protection mechanisms.

DOI: 10.1504/IJESB.2015.068637

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, 2015 Vol.24 No.4, pp.492 - 521

Received: 25 Jul 2014
Accepted: 10 Sep 2014
Published online: 07 Apr 2015 *

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