How to adequately balance between competition and cooperation? A typology of horizontal coopetition

This paper shows how rival firms organise themselves to manage collectively an interdependence situation. Based on several case studies on the management of the coexistence between GM and non-GM productions in the French agri-food industry, this research shows that grain merchants were able to federate, coordinate or influence all the stakeholders to control their agricultural lands. Our results indicate that it goes through cooperation relationships between rivals among coopetition strategies. This paper reveals the existence of three generic forms of coopetition:1 The first is characterised by a coordination mechanism based on direct and informal relationships through tacit conventions and a strong embeddedness of the relationship.2 The second is characterised by formal and indirect relationships which need the involvement of a third party in the coordination mechanism.3 The third type is characterised by the setting up of a 'mediation arena' which allows for the construction of the collective actions