We examine how firms implement specific tools to manage learning tensions in a coopetitive setting. Until now, little attention has been paid to the management of coopetitive tensions. Most contributions have set theoretical principles to follow in order to manage properly a coopetitive agreement. However, there have been only few empirical studies on the management of coopetition. Considering information as a key resource for firms, we focus on informational and learning tensions. More precisely, we observe that coopetitors balance between sharing information for the success of the project and protecting information to sustain their competitive advantage. Setting our analysis at an operational level, we stress on the central role of information systems in the management of learning tensions. Drawing from an in-depth case study in the European space industry, we contribute to the existing literature on the management of coopetition by offering a more empirical vision of the issues met by coopetitors. More precisely, we draw lessons on the design of the coopetitive IS at different levels. First, we analyze the structure of the IS and its position within the organization of the partners. We find that the implementation of the coopetitive IS respects simultaneously the integration and separation principles, while they were presented as opposed in the literature. We then define the nature of information to be shared in a coopetitive agreement. We observe that the information shared is characterized by lower levels of value creation when it is not combined with other resources. Consequently, even if the information is leaked, the partner won’t be able to create much value from it because it doesn’t have the other complementary resources (that are not shared). Finally, we propose a dynamic mapping of information flows within the coopetitive IS. By doing so, as a third contribution, we show that learning opportunities are rather limited in this system, as everything is done to avoid informational leaks between the two internal IS.
Les stratégies de coopétition, qui combinent les deux forces contradictoires que sont la compétition et la coopération, sont des sources de tensions fortes pour les entreprises. Ces tensions nécessitent un management spécifique. Or ces tensions et leur management sont peu étudiés. A cette fin, cette recherche développe une étude de cas exemplaire d’un projet coopétitif mené par Astrium (groupe d'EADS) et Thales Alenia Space (groupe de Thales) dans le secteur des satellites de télécommunication. L’étude de cas permet de mettre en évidence les différentes sources de tensions coopétitives. Elle montre également qu'une organisation mixte basée à la fois sur un principe de séparation et sur un principe d'intégration de la logique concurrentielle et de la logique coopérative permet de manager efficacement les tensions coopétitives.
