Title: Coopetitive IJVs: a strategy of managing the internationalisation challenges in China

Authors: Shuwei Jiang; Annika Tidström

Addresses: School of Management, University of Vaasa, Vaasa, Finland ' School of Management, University of Vaasa, Vaasa, Finland

Abstract: In order for International Joint Ventures (IJVs) to succeed, it is essential to manage the challenges related to internationalisation. IJVs can be seen as cooperative, however, there is often a simultaneous cooperative and competitive, i.e., coopetitive, relationship between the companies involved. There is scarce research related to how coopetition can facilitate internationalisation, although coopetitive business relationships have been shown to increase value and performance of firms. This paper aims to explore how coopetitive IJVs can be used to manage challenges related to internationalisation into China. The empirical part is based on illustrative qualitative case study research including five cases of coopetitive IJVs in the automotive industry. The study sheds new light on the connectedness of IJVs and coopetition. Our findings show that through coopetitive IJVs, internationalisation challenges are managed by exchanging complementary and homogeneous resources. Moreover, our findings indicate the value of a dynamic and gradually developing competition between firms.

Keywords: internationalisation; IJV; coopetition; Chinese market; automotive industry; SME.

DOI: 10.1504/EJIM.2024.135938

European Journal of International Management, 2024 Vol.22 No.2, pp.309 - 336

Received: 09 Sep 2021
Accepted: 26 May 2022
Published online: 10 Jan 2024 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article