Coopetition: A vehicle for business model distinctiveness

The increasing environmental turbulence of today calls for a new era of coopetition research, particularly in the context of evolving business models through alliances with other firms. Collaborating with competitors—firms operating in the same markets—can generate innovative approaches to business model change. Our empirical study, based on a multi-sector survey of 302 dyadic R&D alliances, combined with longitudinal data from 2010 to 2019, reveals that market overlap between partnering firms follows an inverted U-shaped relationship with business model change, which we interpret as new value configurations. Our finding implies that firms with moderate market overlap are best positioned to drive business model change. The success of this relationship depends heavily on whether the firms have collaborated before or plan to continue their partnership in the future. Furthermore, we find that, over time, the business models of these firms tend to diverge, leading to greater (relative) distinctiveness at the firm level. Our insights open up new directions for coopetition research, suggesting that by focusing on distinctiveness, firms may enhance their resilience and success in turbulent environments. • By collaborating with competitors, firms can discover innovative ways to transform their business models. • When firms operate in the same space, there is an optimal point where collaboration fosters novel value configurations. • Coopetition in overlapping markets prompts firms to develop distinct—relatively divergent—business models. • Novel value configurations drive (relative) business model divergence over time, allowing firms to become more distinctive. • Firms can leverage coopetition as a vehicle to differentiate themselves and cultivate distinctive business models.