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Innovativeness is crucial for industrial cluster firms to gain sustained competitive advantage. This study aims to investigate the effects of inter-firm coopetition on firm innovativeness within a cluster and examines the moderating role of institutional support.

This research adopts an empirical survey method using multi-source data from 181 industrial cluster firms. Regression is used to test the hypotheses of this study.

The results show that cooperation and constructive conflict promote firm innovativeness, while destructive conflict is detrimental to firm innovativeness. Moreover, the study also finds that cooperation interacts with both types of conflict to affect firm innovativeness, where cooperation and constructive conflict interact negatively on firm innovativeness, while cooperation and destructive conflict interact positively on firm innovativeness. In addition, institutional support weakens the effects of cooperation and destructive conflict on innovativeness, respectively, but has no significant moderating effect on the relationship between constructive conflict and innovativeness.

These findings enrich the current research on coopetition. The interaction effects of cooperation and both types of conflict on innovativeness deepen the concept of coopetition and responds to the call to further explore the interaction effects within coopetition. The moderating role of institutional support fills a gap in the empirical research on the role of institutional factors affecting coopetition on innovation and also provides valuable suggestions for firm managers and governments in industrial clusters.

The paper has two main purposes: to define and examine supplier oriented purchasing (SOP) as an effective relational exchange practice for organizational buyers and to empirically examine the degree to which supplier oriented purchasing can mediate the impact of manifest conflict on buyer‐supplier relationships.

A model is developed and tested examining the relationship among manifest conflict, relationship satisfaction and SOP. Data collection involved judgment sampling and survey methodology in a field setting using organizational buyers as subjects. Construct measures were based on existing measures and previous research. Measurement reliability and validity were established using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. Hypotheses were tested using SEM and accepted methods for testing mediation effects.

All hypotheses were supported concerning SOP mediating the negative impact of manifest conflict on relationship satisfaction. Post hoc analyses of the effects of individual dimensions of supplier oriented purchasing revealed that communication had the strongest positive impact on relationship satisfaction.

Sampling was regional in scope and included professional purchasing personnel across industry sectors. Data collection was cross‐sectional and future research would benefit from a longitudinal methodology. Additional directions for future research include using SOP in more complex models of relationship marketing to better understand the ability of SOP to mediate conflict.

Supplier oriented purchasing can be viable relational exchange practices for organizational buyers. The supplier oriented purchasing construct provides specific tactics across multiple dimensions of purchasing that buyers can use toward fostering effective relationships with key partners such as suppliers. In line with current research on relationship marketing, supplier oriented purchasing can have a significant role in mitigating and managing inter‐organizational conflict.

The study examines SOP, contributing to an under‐researched area of purchasing strategy and practice and supports that SOP mediates the negative effect of manifest conflict in buyer‐supplier relationships.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze coordination mechanisms in buyer-supplier collaborations in new product development (NPD) and the influence of conflicts of interest. Inter- and intra-organizational coordination mechanisms are investigated.

The findings reported are based on a multiple case study consisting of four cases at two firms. Theoretical sampling consisted in selecting two projects with opposite levels of conflicts of interest between the collaborating firms. In total, 38 interviews were conducted with employees in buying and supplying firms.

The findings illustrate how inter-firm conflicts of interest affect the way firms coordinate both externally and internally. A high level of conflicts of interest related to information leakage emanated in more distant relationships with limited coordination between buyer and supplier. This restrictive relationship is also reflected in limited coordination between the buyer’s purchasing and research and development (R&D) units.

Generalizability is limited, as only two large industrial firms have been studied, but with four projects investigated in detail. The study shows that in situations, in which there is a conflict of interest, external coordination affects the firms’ internal coordination. Conflicts of interest in buyer-supplier NPD collaborations are managed by limiting information sharing, which is reflected in the way R&D and purchasing are coordinated.

Managers need to be aware of that a firm’s fear of sharing information with its supplier can also transfer to intra-firm unit coordination, as R&D may limit its information sharing with purchasing. On the other hand, in buyer-supplier collaborations with little conflict of interest, firms can form close relationships. Such a close relationship is also mirrored in how R&D and purchasing openly share information and coordinate.

This research contributes to an increased understanding of coordination in buyer-supplier innovation collaboration. Firms not only need to consider their external coordination but also how coordination with suppliers may affect the way they coordinate in NPD projects within the firm between purchasing and R&D.

To examine how partner firms, involved in provisioning m‐business applications and services, manage inter‐firm conflict and cooperation.

Synthesises network analysis and game theory to propose a conceptual model in which to examine the affect of relationship conflict and cooperation on a partnership's business processes. The model is used to examine how Japan's NTT DoCoMo successfully managed its global network of partnerships.

Provides initial support for conceptual linkages between interaction and partner management and the business processes in m‐business partnerships. Suggests that the unit of analysis for studying partnerships should extend beyond the dyadic relationship to a network. The paper also finds support for the use of social control mechanisms as a means in which to safeguard a focal relationship.

Characterised by high levels of uncertainty, task complexity and partner diversity, m‐business is an ideal environment in which to study partnerships. Continuing research efforts in this field will serve to bring managerial focus to understanding the broader concept of how m‐business macro‐markets operate.

The theoretical underpinnings of this paper provide a contemporary lens in which to examine the relationship between conflict, cooperation and process development and for developing a new stream of empirical research in the field of partnerships.

The purpose of this paper is to develop and test a theoretical model to examine how exchange climate attributes and contextual factors between two parent firms in an international joint venture (IJV) affect tacit knowledge transfer. The authors investigate how this tacit knowledge, which comprises international marketing expertise, knowledge about foreign cultures and tastes and managerial practices, impacts IJV performance.

Based on data from a survey of IJV managers in 326 Korean firms from a variety of industries, structural equation modeling (AMOS 18.0) is used to test the authors’ hypotheses.

The findings show that conflict resolution and cooperation positively affect tacit knowledge transfer, but communication does not. It was found that the difference in the relative levels of economic development in the environments of partners significantly influences tacit knowledge acquisition, but cultural distance does not. Tacit knowledge acquisition positively influences IJV performance.

The paper fills a gap in the literature by articulating the relationships between exchange climate attributes and tacit knowledge acquisition. Exchange climate, characterized by behavioral processes that directly impact knowledge transfer, constitutes an important missing link in prior research about tacit knowledge transfer. The paper contributes to a better understanding of the dynamic relationships among relational capital, exchange climate and tacit knowledge transfers. The model the authors develop and test has important implications for the design of organizational processes that facilitate tacit knowledge transfer.

Purpose – Researchers rarely touch on the phenomenon of crisis in the relationship itself combined with relationship conflict caused by turbulence in the relationship environment – specifically for emerging markets. The aim of this study is to develop a theoretical view for studying how firms manage business relationships when facing crises caused both by involved parties and by contextual factors.

Design/methodology/approach – Based on a business network perspective, the paper develops a relationship view stressing trust/distrust, commitment/de-commitment and uncertainty/knowledge as central explanatory relationship elements. The paper employs longitudinal case study method and discusses how the relationship between the Swedish firm Ericsson and Telefónica in Argentina for the period of 1998–2004. The process view is composed of three phases: the start-up phase, a phase of crisis and instability and finally a phase of restoration.

Findings/originality – With the assumption of extensiveness in relationship development and high risk in falling from conflict into critical problems in emerging markets, the paper has elaborated new theoretical and empirical thoughts. The study gains further strength from the fact that the number and intensity of crises is increasing because of the escalation in global interdependency. It contributes further knowledge on strategy decisions like exit, wait and see, take the risk and advance affecting the firms’ business relationship.

The purpose of this study is to increase understanding about vertical coopetition from the perspective of interrelated conflict episodes on multiple levels.

The empirical part is based on a qualitative single case study of a coopetitive buyer-supplier relationship in the manufacturing sector.

Conflicts in vertical coopetition evolve from being merely functional and task-related to becoming dysfunctional and relationship-related, as the level of competition increases. The nature of conflict episodes influences the development of vertical coopetition, and therefore, the interrelatedness of conflict episodes is important to acknowledge.

Although a conflict is considered functional within a company, it may still be dysfunctional as far as the coopetitive relationship with the buyer or seller is concerned. Competition may trigger conflicts related to protecting own technology and knowledge, which may lead to termination of the cooperation, therefore coopetition should be managed in a way that balance sharing and protecting important knowledge to get advantages of coopetition.

The findings enhance prior research on vertical coopetition by offering new perspectives on causes of conflicts, their management, outcomes and types. The value of taking a multilevel approach lies in the ability to show how conflicts occur and influence other conflicts through the interrelatedness of conflict elements on different levels.

To further extend the understanding of the aggregating functions of an entrepreneurial business network, this paper attempts to explore the antecedents enabling the organisation of diverse entrepreneurs to engage in a collaborative inter-firm business network project. This paper also elucidates the development of the relational capabilities and performance of entrepreneurial business networks.

An explorative, longitudinal case study design is employed to analyse an Italian agricultural business network, which comprised a group of local small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Using the network as the focus of analysis, the case study draws insights from key informants comprising the network management team and the entrepreneurs who make up the membership of the business network.

The results of the study provide critical factors for successful organisation of inter-firm engagement. Although these factors are not mutually exclusive, the results show that organising for inter-firm engagement in an entrepreneurial business network context positively influenced the network relational performance and entrepreneurs' innovation capabilities.

The paper extends current understanding of inter-organisational engagement and illuminates the antecedents enabling the development of network relational dynamics capabilities. The empirical results provide unusual insights into the aggregating roles of an entrepreneurial business network, giving practitioners practical insights into managing a successful inter-organisational collaborative project. Using the relevant theoretical frameworks, the study empirically tests the organisation solutions relevant to literature on inter-firm engagement in a business network context and addresses the organisation solutions' interrelationship and linkages to entrepreneurial network relational performance in terms of knowledge practice, information and resources sharing and innovation.

This paper illuminates the distinction between individual and organizational actors in business-to-business markets as well as the coexistence of formal and informal mechanisms of coordination in multinational corporations. The main questions addressed include the following. (1) What factors influence the occurrence of personal contacts of foreign subsidiary managers in industrial multinational corporations? (2) How such personal contacts enable coordination in industrial markets and within multinational firms? The theoretical context of the paper is based on: (1) the interaction approach to industrial markets, (2) the network approach to industrial markets, and (3) the process approach to multinational management. The unit of analysis is the foreign subsidiary manager as the focal actor of a contact network. The paper is empirically focused on Portuguese sales subsidiaries of Finnish multinational corporations, which are managed by either a parent country national (Finnish), a host country national (Portuguese) or a third country national. The paper suggests eight scenarios of individual dependence and uncertainty, which are determined by individual, organizational, and/or market factors. Such scenarios are, in turn, thought to require personal contacts with specific functions. The paper suggests eight interpersonal roles of foreign subsidiary managers, by which the functions of their personal contacts enable inter-firm coordination in industrial markets. In addition, the paper suggests eight propositions on how the functions of their personal contacts enable centralization, formalization, socialization and horizontal communication in multinational corporations.