| dc.description.abstract | In today’s dynamic, competitive, and complex business world, cooperating with your competitor
is increasingly used as a firm-strategy to achieve innovation. However, such a relationship,
known as coopetition, is paradoxical, as it involves firms cooperating and competing at the same
time, creating paradoxical tensions. While prior literature has proposed different approaches to
manage coopetitive relationships, such as juridical and structural solutions, a framework that
explains the role of leadership in managing these tensions in interfirm coopetitive relationships is
missing. To bridge this gap, I carry out an inductive study interviewing leaders in three firms in
the Fintech industry, participating in an insurance industry coopetitive project. Drawing on
grounded theory and temporal mapping, I examine how leaders manage the tension present in
coopetitive relationships and the emotional ambivalence arising from it. The findings
demonstrate the tensions and ambivalence experienced by leaders, represented by different and
dynamic emotional trajectories in each firm. Further, the findings show how leaders throughout
these trajectories manage tensions by engaging in specific leadership functions. This in turn
appears to influence how the leaders perceive the coopetitive relationships as well as innovation
outcome potential. Based on these findings, I propose that leadership plays a significant role in
achieving the desired outcomes of inter-firm competitive relationships. I develop a model that
explains how emotional ambivalence caused by paradoxical tension affects the emotional state of
leaders, and how leaders engage in specific functions aimed at managing such states, which in
turn influences sustaining inter-firm relationships, and ultimately innovation potential. The
findings have theoretical implications for research on organization paradoxes arising from
coopetition, and practical implications for leaders responsible for the success of coopetition
projects. | en_US |
