The “human side” of coopetition: the role of CEO mindsets in firm coopetition for innovation

According to upper echelons theory, firms’ strategic decision-making is, to a great extent, driven by the mindsets of the managers. Focusing on the role of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) coopetitive mindset, which reflects the CEO’s favorable perception of simultaneously competitive and cooperative relationships and the willingness to pursue opportunities for accessing complementary assets and managing complicated relationships in positive ways, this research attempts to fill an important gap in the growing body of literature by examining the human-side antecedents of firm coopetition, as well as its boundary conditions. Using a two-phase survey of 780 Chinese firms, we found that firms with CEOs who have more coopetitive mindsets are more likely to adopt coopetition alliances for innovation. In addition, the relationship between CEO mindsets and firm coopetition is contingent on different levels of executive job demand. Specifically, higher levels of innovation performance challenge, technological uncertainty, and regional intellectual property protection incompleteness strengthen the impact of CEO mindsets on firm coopetition alliances. This research enriches our understanding of the micro-foundation of coopetition by considering the role of CEOs. We also contribute to the upper echelons theory by depicting how executive job demands interactively moderate the impact of CEO mindsets in the contexts of firms’ coopetition for innovation. Moreover, this study provides enlightening implications for ongoing managerial practice.