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Theories and Methods of Science of Science

Coopetitive Relationships and Value Co-creation in Innovation  Ecosystem

—The Moderating Role of Different Governance  Mechanisms

Wang Zhanzhao1, 2 , Wang Shilong1

(1.School of Business Administration Research Center for Energy Economics, Henan Polytechnic University, Ji⁃ aozuo 454000, China; 2.Taihang Development Research Institute, Henan Polytechnic University, Jiaozuo  454000, China)

Abstract: In an era characterized by VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambigu⁃ ity), in order to promote technological standardization, expand the market size, and establish  competitive advantages, firms often choose to cooperate with competitors who possess comple⁃ mentary knowledge assets and establish complex coopetitive relationships. While such coopeti⁃ tive relationships may enable firms to access complementary resources to create greater value, they may also carry potential risks, such as knowledge theft and opportunism. Based on this, this  paper integrates the coopetition theory and resource-based theory, categorizing the coopetitive  relationships into three types: competition-dominant, cooperation-dominant, and balanced  coopetition. It adopts the hierarchical regression analysis and examines the survey data from 330 high-tech firms to explore how these coopetitive relationships influence value co-creation in in⁃ novation ecosystems and verify the moderating role of governance mechanisms. The empirical study shows that different types of coopetitive relationships between firms  have different impacts on value co-creation in innovation ecosystem. Specifically, competitiondominant coopetition has a negative impact on value co-creation, while cooperation-dominant coopetition and balanced coopetition have a positive impact on value co-creation. In addition, the governance mechanisms play a moderating role in the relationship between balanced coopeti⁃ tion and co-creation. The relational governance mechanism also moderates the relationship be⁃ tween cooperation-dominant coopetition and co-creation. However, the moderating effect of gov⁃ ernance mechanisms on the relationship between competition-dominant coopetition and cocreation is not significant, nor is the moderating effect of contractual governance mechanisms on  the relationship between cooperation-dominant coopetition and co-creation. The theoretical contributions of this paper are as follows: Firstly, using hierarchical regres⁃ sion analysis to explore the role of the coopetitive relationships on value co-creation in innova⁃ tion ecosystem, which further enriches the research on the antecedent mechanism of value cocreation from the perspective of inter-actor relationships. Secondly, unlike the previous studies  that treated competitive and cooperative relationships separately, this study comprehensively  considers the dual attributes of competition and cooperation in coopetitive relationships, empha⁃ sizes the joint role of competition and cooperation, categorizes coopetitive relationships into  competition-dominant, cooperation-dominant, and balanced coopetition, and defines their con⁃ notations and concepts of each category, thus further expanding the dimensional division of coo⁃ petitive relationships. Thirdly, this paper explores the moderating roles of contractual and rela⁃ tional governance in coopetitive relationships and their effect on value co-creation in innovation  ecosystem and further clarifies the boundary conditions under which coopetitive relationships af⁃ fect value co-creation. This study can provide a theoretical basis and practical insights for the  coordination and optimization of inter-firm coopetitive relationships and the matching and se⁃ lecting of governance mechanisms, which is conducive to the practical effect of value cocreation in innovation ecosystem and promotes the sustainable symbiotic development of innova⁃ tion ecosystem. 

Key words: innovation ecosystem; value co-creation; coopetition; governance mechanism; regulating effect