Competitive and cooperative strategy

This section defines competitive, cooperative, and coopetitive strategies, with its chapters focusing on gaining competitive advantage and creating value through alliances. It suggests that although cooperation counters competition, in practice, firms simultaneously compete and cooperate in markets and value chain functions. It reviews theories on competitive and cooperative strategies, such as market power, transaction cost economics, and resource-based theories and highlights game theoretical, relational and social perspectives. It then considers the changing context of strategy, including the rise of emerging economies, political intervention, technological disruption, and growing social demands on businesses. It points to new forms of cooperation and competition, including global value chains, cross-sector alliances, technology platforms and ecosystems, with new models of public-private collaboration. This new business reality has important implications for the future focus of research on cooperation, competition and coopetition.