Contingent value of coopetition in business clusters from a resource-based view: A moderated-mediation model

This study examines how perceived cluster resource attractiveness (PCRA) shapes coopetition among co-located firms and how coopetition translates those resource perceptions into knowledge sharing and innovation. Building on the resource-based view, we model coopetition as the mechanism through which managers leverage valuable, unique, and complementary cluster resources into firm outcomes, and we theorize that engagement mode in cluster activities conditions this translation. Using survey data from 221 firms in a business cluster, we estimate a moderated-mediation model with regression and corroborate the results with a latent-variable SEM robustness check. Findings show that PCRA increases coopetition, and coopetition in turn enhances both knowledge sharing and innovation. However, the indirect effects depend on participation type: formal participation attenuates the coopetition to outcome link, especially for innovation, informal participation is directionally positive but statistically non-significant, and an aggregate participation robustness test confirms attenuation when firms engage in formalized participation. The study introduces PCRA as an operationalization of cluster-level resource heterogeneity, positions coopetition as an RBV-consistent mechanism, and identifies governance-based boundary conditions limiting the returns to coopetition. Practically, managers should leverage informal ties and selective formal involvement to convert cluster resources into knowledge and innovation while avoiding over-formalization that can dampen coopetitive gains. Highlights • Investigates how perceived cluster resource attractiveness (PCRA) drives coopetition in business clusters. • Develops and tests a moderated-mediation model linking PCRA to knowledge sharing and innovation via coopetition. • Shows that coopetition partially mediates the relationship between PCRA and both knowledge sharing and innovation. • Finds that formal participation in cluster activities weakens the coopetition→outcome link, especially for innovation. • Introduces PCRA, a cluster level operationalization of resource heterogeneity, as a driver of coopetition and outcomes.