Co-opetition and Technological Innovation in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises: A Multilevel Conceptual Model

Strategic flexibility and SME performance in an emerging economy

Purpose

– This study aims to address the following question: when strategic flexibility can be most beneficial to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the context of emerging economies.

Design/methodology/approach

– Drawing on dynamic capabilities perspective, this study builds a contingency model and examines it with survey data collected from 166 SMEs in China.

Findings

– This study finds that the relationship between strategic flexibility and firm performance is extensively moderated by external (competitive intensity and environmental munificence), internal (resource combination activities), as well as bridging factors (managerial ties).

Originality/value

– The findings contribute to the contingency view of strategic flexibility and firm performance research by incorporating insights from the dynamic capabilities perspective and by expanding the scope of existing research to emerging economies.

Collaboration, Competition, and Co-opetition: Interorganizational Dynamics Between Private Child Welfare Agencies and Child Serving Sectors

Human service agencies are encouraged to collaborate with other public and private agencies in providing services to children and families. However, they also often compete with these same partners for funding, qualified staff, and clientele. Although little is known about complex interagency dynamics of competition and collaboration in the child-serving sector, evidence suggests that competition can undermine collaboration unless managed strategically. This study explores the interrelationship between competition and collaboration, sometimes referred to as "co-opetition." Using a national dataset of private child and family serving agencies, we examine their relationships with other child serving sectors (N=4460 pair-wise relationships), and explore how variations in patterns of collaboration and competition are associated with several organizational, environmental and relational factors. Results suggest that most relationships between private child welfare agencies and other child serving agencies are characterized by both competition and collaboration (i.e. "co-opetition"), and is most frequently reported with other local private child welfare agencies. Logistic regression analyses indicate that co-opetition is likely to occur when private child welfare agencies have a good perceived relationship or a sub-contract with their partner. Findings have implications for how agency leaders manage partner relationships, and how public child welfare administrators structure contracts.

EXPLORING OPEN SEARCH STRATEGIES AND THEIR PERCEIVED IMPACT ON INNOVATION PERFORMANCE—EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE

Given Chesbrough's idea of open innovation, it could be said that external knowledge is an important element in the optimisation of in-house innovation. External knowledge is distributed among various actors and is accessible through many channels. However, we still do not know much about the search strategies that affect innovation performance. Our study therefore explores the relationship between open knowledge search strategies and company-level innovative performance. This study examines the open search strategies of 193 firms on the basis of cross-sectional data from Finnish markets. We identified four specific strategies, namely (1) market-driven, (2) science-driven, (3) intermediary-driven and (4) generic-knowledge-driven. According to the results, all except intermediary-driven strategies positively affect innovation performance.