Coopetition

Coopetition occurs when competing firms cooperate in some aspects of their production and marketing in order to maximize their profits. Coopetition can be used as a green business strategy to increase the sustainability of competing businesses.

The term coopetition, created by combining the words cooperation and competition, was coined by Ray Noorda, founder of the networking software company Novell. It was popularized by Adam Brandenburger from Harvard Business School and Barry Nalebuff from Yale School of Management. Coopetition describes a fusion of these antithetical concepts, which, although it may seem paradoxical, already has a considerable history of business success.

Noteworthy examples of coopetition success involve arrangements between competing airlines in what are called “code sharing” agreements, which allow partner airlines to market seats on each others’ flights, ...