The purpose of this article is to analyze coopetitive behavior of companies operating in oil and gas distribution networks, enhancing both conceptual clarity of the concept and understanding of its specifics in oil and gas industry. We developed a model based on six factors: intensity, functionality, formalism, benefits, tension and stability to investigate 10 research hypothesis on a sample consisting of 154 subjects from 39 companies. By its conceptualization and results, our study is one of the first focusing on coopetitive behavior in oil and gas distribution and contributes to shape coopetition as a distinct subject for research. This paper aims to develop coopetition literature by clarifying the landscape of coopetitive relations in oil and gas distribution, enabling scholars and practitioners to better understand this process.
Literature ReviewThe engagement of organizations in coopetition materializes a paradox in the relationship [12,18]. Scholars argue that such a paradox engenders coopetitive tensions that in turn have the potential to aggravate the relationship and break partnerships [6,7], with large failure rates of alliances between competitors [8,9]. Unfortunately, the definition of coopetition still remains fuzzy [19]. Various definitions are used, with significant differences in terms of scope and nature. Usually, coopetition is defined as cooperation between directly competing organizations [5,20,21]. Moreover, coopetition has also been defined as an occurrence between different supply chains [22], and networks [23].In strategic management literature, cooperation and competition were traditionally seen as antagonistic drivers within cooperative arrangements [24], with competitive side of a cooperative relationship usually regarded as potentially harmful [25,26]. By contrast, coopetition perspective tries to integrate the two paradoxical approaches into a common construct [14,27]. The emerging perspective is to depict cooperation and competition as two separate continua allowing to distinguish between different forms of coopetition with varying levels of intensity for cooperation and competition respectively [12,28,29].According to Brandenburger and Nalebuff's (1996) [30], this cooperative-competitive approach has to be defined relationally, as relations between customers, suppliers, and competitors, which jointly create value for themselves and the other partners involved. So, coopetition is perceived as the sum of various relations, with cooperative and competitive relations divided between various actors. This conceptualization is used by networking and industrial coopetition literature [4,31,32]. At an inter-organizational level, Bengtsson and Kock [33] emphasized the tension and complexity occurring when two or more organizations cooperate and compete simultaneously. They restrict coopetition at direct competitors, focusing on the horizontal coopetition and argue that relations are divided between activities. Hence, according to this approach, coopetition appears as consisting of two simult...
