SMEs, co-opetition and knowledge sharing: the role of information systems

Abstract

Co-opetition, simultaneous cooperation and competition, is a recent phenomenon. Co-opetition entails sharing knowledge that may be a key source of competitive advantage. Yet, the knowledge gained by cooperation may also be used for competition. However, there is little investigation of how this problem may be modelled and, hence, managed. A game-theoretic framework for analysing interorganisational knowledge sharing under co-opetition and guidelines for the management of explicit knowledge predicated on coordination and control theory has been proposed, but remains untested. This research empirically investigates these issues in the context of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). SMEs provide an interesting setting as they are knowledge generators, but are poor at knowledge exploitation. The paper uses data from U.K. SMEs to investigate co-opetition, management of knowledge sharing and the role of IS.

Business freedom, corruption and the performance of trusting cooperation partners: empirical findings from six European countries

“…The response variable in the econometric analysis is the performance of the focal cooperating firm. SMEs enter alliances for many reasons, for example to access international markets (Cullen et al 2000), to reap scale benefits (Masurel and Janszen 1998) or to share knowledge in innovation and R&D (Levy et al 2003). Therefore, the proximal, particular goals of alliances may be quite diverse, and firms that score highly for one goal may not even have attempted to achieve another (Mohr and Speckman 1994).…”

The Spread of Knowledge Management in SMEs: A Scenario in Evolution

“…Some authors [16,21,[74][75][76][77][78][79][80][81][82] suggest a variety of people-centered practices such as: Focus groups, formal meetings, communities of sharing, virtual communities, informal networks, project teams, interactions with clients, interactions with suppliers, interactions with partners, communities of practices, job rotation, training. Moreover, even though Hutchinson and Quintas (2008) [83] underline that small firms are more likely to adopt informal processes to manage knowledge, other authors [84][85][86][87][88] also suggest the importance of more formal techniques and methods (such as: casual mapping, knowledge maps, balance scorecards, formal manuals), while others suggest establishing a chief knowledge officer [78] or a project team [80,89].…”

Coopetição em Redes Interpessoais

“…De um lado, há a hostilidade motivada pelo conflito de interesses e, de outro, a necessidade de se estabelecer comprometimento e confiança mútua para que o objetivo comum a dois atores seja atingido (Garcia & Velasco, 2002). Na literatura sobre coopetição é possível observar ao menos três perspectivas teóricas principais que possibilitam a construção de um entendimento dos relacionamentos coopetitivos: economia de custos de transação (Dagnino & Padula, 2002;Garcia & Velasco, 2002;M'Chirgui, 2005), visão baseada em recursos (Garcia & Velasco, 2002;M'Chirgui, 2005) e teoria dos jogos (Brandenburger & Nalebuff, 1996;Dagnino & Padula, 2002;Garcia & Velasco, 2002;Leite et al, 2009;Levy, Loebbecke, & Powell, 2003;Loebecke et al, 1999).…”