Interplay between coopetition and innovation : Systematic literature review

Abstract

The paper aims to present results of the systematic literature review on the interplay between coopetition and innovation as well as to identify key research problems and potential directions for further studies. Author’s intention is to provide the comprehensive understanding of interplay between coopetition and innovation. Both phenomena are very often analyzed as separate concepts, but researchers have also combined them in studies. The study reveals two research streams on interplay between coopetition and innovation. The first one tries to answer the question how coopetition impacts performance of firms in terms of innovation output. Empirical studies show that cooperation with rivals may either foster, hamper or be neutral to innovation and different moderators may be identified. The second one sees innovation-related factors on organizational and industry levels as important determinants of the coopetition. Both research streams are worth exploring in the future. Researches on impact of coopetition on innovation output have brought more questions than answers, while studies on innovation-related determinates of coopetition are rather scant. Thus, the interplay between coopetition and innovation is an interesting area for the future research.