Coopetition of small- and medium-sized family enterprises: insights from an IT business network

Johanna Gast, Andreas Kallmünzer, Sascha Kraus, Katherine Gundolf and Judith Arnold

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, 2019, vol. 38, issue 1/2, 78-101

Abstract: Coopetition drives prosperity and economic development. Surprisingly, despite its relevance and the presence of family dynamics which affect business behaviour, researchers have not yet explored coopetition in small- and medium-sized family enterprises. This study seeks to advance coopetition research by analysing its application by family SMEs coopeting in a German business network in the information technology sector. We explore the nature of coopetition among family SMEs, and focus on motivational drivers to coopete and the implications of coopetition. Based on the present qualitative case study on 11 coopeting family SMEs, we discovered that coopetition among family SMEs tends to be cooperation-dominated. Moreover, the decision for and implications of coopetition seem to facilitate the family SMEs' non-economic goal to safeguard their socio-emotional wealth. The creation of binding social ties and the fortification of the firm's long-term orientation in the form of family bonds renewal are important consequences of coopetition.

Keywords: coopetition; family firms; family SMEs; innovation; socio-emotional wealth; business network; IT sector; Germany. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.inderscience.com/link.php?id=102493 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ids:ijesbu:v:38:y:2019:i:1/2:p:78-101

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business from Inderscience Enterprises Ltd
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sarah Parker ().