A Systemic Approach for Modeling and Analysis of Coopetition

Coopetition has been defined as an approach to managing that combines competition and cooperation. Coopetition transcends the traditional paradigms of competition and cooperation in an effort to achieve the advantages of both. As an inter-organizational relationship which is of a higher complexity than cooperation between non competitors, coopetition presents challenges both for business managers and researchers in the strategy field. In this paper we present a systemic approach to modeling and to the analysis of coopetition between firms in a business environment that can contribute to our understanding of the strategic incentives and processes for enterprises to engage in a coopetitive relationship. Our approach comprises a modeling technique called Systemic Enterprise Architecture Method (SEAM) that incorporates conceptualizations from competence-based management (CBM) theory. We illustrate our approach by applying it to the case of Amazon.com’s coopetitive strategies.