In search of coopetition consensus: shaping the collective identity of a relevant strategic management community

While research on coopetition has lately experienced a flourishing chapter, it has developed in rather disjointed and bewildering fashion. This paper aims to explore the various definitions of coopetition and how such variety of definitions might hamper the knowledge accumulation about the concept. We organise the paper in two key steps. First, by means of a survey analysis involving participants to a relevant international strategy conference, we explore the status of implicit consensus on coopetition. Second, drawing on a systematic review of extant coopetition literature, we investigate the explicit consensus of coopetition as it emerges from previous studies. Finally, we juxtapose the two consensus building segments and clarify how from a remote corner of the strategy domain, coopetition has recently turned into a relevant area of strategic management for theorising multifaceted strategic relationships that is developing a sense of collective identity.