Managing Coopetition in Business Ecosystem - A study of the Printing Industry in Malaysia

Coopetition involves multidisciplinary actors in a competition and cooperation phenomenon simultaneously. There is a large research gap on how a coopetition process is established and managed in a business ecosystem. Through the in-depth analysis of a single printing business ecosystem in Malaysia, this paper finds coopetition is common as the way of doing business among the micro, small and medium sized firms in one industrial park growing into a popular printing ecosystem in Selangor state of Malaysia. This paper identifies the sources of coopetition, challenges faced by different firms in the same industry and the mechanism of these firms surviving in this business ecosystem. Through a case study, our findings showed that informal cooperation more likely than a structured coopetition to achieve short-term success yet a long term resilience for small medium enterprises. The possible tension in coopetition is reduced when trust and friendliness is available to maintain the business ecosystem position. The interchangeable supplier-customer relationships facilities value co-creation through exchange of resources and capabilities in the geographic, technological and market overlap business ecosystem. The paper suggests the coopetition strategy is the base strategy to build competitiveness of individual firm located in a business ecosystem.