Coopetition as an entrepreneurial process: Interplay of causation and effectuation

Abstract

The present study views coopetition as an entrepreneurial process that involves coping with uncertainty, risk-taking behavior, exploring and exploiting opportunities, and developing innovative solutions. It also shows that coopetition can be not only an intended but also an emergent process with low levels of goal specificity, which enables the incorporation of effectuation theory into coopetition research. The empirical part of the article is based on a longitudinal case study of three media companies from Finland that compete and cooperate simultaneously. Our results demonstrate that coopetitive interactions combine effectuation and causation, and this interplay depends on stages of the coopetition process and on managerial levels. Therefore, the effectuation lens allows to examine coopetition process from a novel micro-perspective of individual decision makers. Our cross-disciplinary study concludes with outlining new avenues for future research in both coopetition and entrepreneurial effectuation.