Papier accepté à la SMS 30TH Annual International Conference (2010) que nous avons rédigé et présenté ensemble, avec le Pr. Maryem Charni (Institut polytechnique UniLaSalle, France), le 13 septembre à Rome, sous le titre : « Innovating with friends and foes ».

Abstract: The word coopetition still carries with it some intricacy and has not achieved the status of a universally known trademark. It is nonetheless a powerful croisée des chemins that rallies many fields of management studies and practices such as strategy, finance and entrepreneurship. We aim to move away from the mere conceptual and semantic debate – although can be fruitful – to offer an empirical understanding of the coopetition performance in the case of small innovative firms. Our study investigates more particularly the Resource-Coopetition-Satisfaction relationship. Data from 90 small and medium-sized firms of the European Initiative Eurêka show that, in R&D ventures, resources complementarities, experience and trust are critical, whereas financial and technological resources prove to be non-significant. These results are, however, very sensitive to coopetition effect – i.e. the partner being a competitor or not. From both common and unexpected results, we draw a series of research venues beneficial both to coopetition management theory and practice.