Coopetition between small businesses: a matter of proximity

Coopetición entre pequeñas empresas: una cuestión de proximidad

Benjamin Mira, Fréderic Le Roy and Marc Robert
Additional contact information
Benjamin Mira: MRM - Montpellier Research in Management - UPVM - Université Paul-Valéry - Montpellier 3 - UPVD - Université de Perpignan Via Domitia - Groupe Sup de Co Montpellier (GSCM) - Montpellier Business School - UM - Université de Montpellier
Fréderic Le Roy: MRM - Montpellier Research in Management - UPVM - Université Paul-Valéry - Montpellier 3 - UPVD - Université de Perpignan Via Domitia - Groupe Sup de Co Montpellier (GSCM) - Montpellier Business School - UM - Université de Montpellier
Marc Robert: MRM - Montpellier Research in Management - UPVM - Université Paul-Valéry - Montpellier 3 - UPVD - Université de Perpignan Via Domitia - Groupe Sup de Co Montpellier (GSCM) - Montpellier Business School - UM - Université de Montpellier

Post-Print from HAL

Abstract: Coopetition is a strategy that brings performance and potential risks to firms. This is also true for small business. Indeed, on the one hand, past researches show that small business can highly benefit from coopetition. On the other hand, coopetition carries tensions and conflicts destructing value. Consequently, coopetition in small business has to be efficiently managed to perform well. Past researches has focused on methods of intern management of coopetition in small business but not on inter-organizational devices. In so doing, we develop a theoretical framework based on the Proximity Law, in which four elements are essential: small businesses in coopetition form a community separated from the rest of competitors by a wall phenomenon; small businesses in coopetition develop a high sense of belonging to the community ; there is a hierarchization of the members inside the coopetitive network ; the wall of the coopetitive community is not totally hermetic because there are entry and exit doors. The relevance of this theoretical framework is evaluated by studying small businesses in the real estate brokerage industry in France. This research shows the relevance of coopetition strategies in small business and that the four main characteristics of coopetition in small business are present.

Date: 2017
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Published in Revue Internationale PME, 2017, 30 (3-4), pp.231-259. ⟨10.7202/1042666ar⟩

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

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:hal:journl:hal-02066897

DOI: 10.7202/1042666ar

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Post-Print from HAL
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CCSD ().