Coopetition

Coopetition or Co-opetition (sometimes spelled "coopertition" or "co-opertition") is a neologism coined to describe cooperative competition.

Basic principles of co-opetitive structures have been described in game theory, a scientific field that received more attention with the book Theory of Games and Economic Behavior in 1944 and the works of John Forbes Nash on Non-cooperative games.

Coopetition occurs when companies work together for parts of their business where they do not believe they have competitive advantage and where they believe they can share common costs. For instance, the arrangement between PSA Peugeot Citroën and Toyota to share components for a new city car - simultaneously sold as the Peugeot 107, the Toyota Aygo, and the Citroën C1 - qualifies as coopetition. In this case, companies save money on shared costs while remaining fiercely competitive in other areas.

History

The word coopetition and its variants have been re-coined several times:

• In 1913 by the Sealshipt Oyster System^[1]
• In 1937 by Rockwell D. Hunt^[2]
• Around 1975 by Doug Chamberlin in a class at Adrian College, responding to an instructor's request for an appropriate new word with which to refer to "conflict over how to divide up the benefits produced by cooperation." Incorporated in 1981 college textbook Thinking About Politics: American Government in Associational Perspective (N.Y: D. Van Nostrand, 1981), chapter 9, p. 257. Text is available on-line [1].
• Around 1992 by Raymond Noorda to characterize Novell's business strategy.^{[3] [4]}
• In 2000, FIRST Robotics had a competition game titled Co-Opertition FIRST. In 2009, FIRST cofounder Dean Kamen received a patent titled "Method for Creating Coopertition" (spelled as one word, with no hyphen), which involves giving FIRST Robotics teams some points scored by other teams, to encourage cooperation even as they compete.^[5]. US FIRST now claims a trademark on the term on its Web site. ^[6]
• In the mid-2000's, "coopetition" began to be used by Darrell Waltrip to describe the phenomenon of drivers cooperating at various phases of a race at "high speed" tracks such as Daytona and Telledaga where cooperative aerodynamic drafting is critical to a driver's ability to advance through the field. The ultimate goal for each driver, however, is to use the strategy to win.^[7]

See also

• Competitive altruism
• Frenemy
• Cartels are well-known examples of companies working together in order to limit competition.
• Negarchy
• Co-Opertition FIRST
• FIRST#Philosophy

Notes

1. ^ Paul Terry Cherington, Advertising as a Business Force: A Compilation of Experience Records, Doubleday, for the Associated advertising clubs of America, 1913, p. 144 (full text at Google Books)
2. ^ "Co-opetition", Los Angeles Times, Nov 20, 1937, p. a4
3. ^ Lawrence M. Fisher, "Preaching Love Thy Competitor", New York Times, March 29, 1992 full text
4. ^ http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/ray-noorda-422415.html Independent, Ray Noorda - Pioneer of 'co-opetition'
5. ^ Kamen, Dean. "US Patent 7,507,169". US Patent Office. doi:March 24, 2009. http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=7507169.PN.&OS=PN/7507169&RS=PN/7507169. 
6. ^ "FIRST values"
7. ^ Waltrip, Darrell. "For Gordon and Johnson, "coopetition" is a winning strategy.". http://msn.foxsports.com/nascar/story/For-Gordon-and-Johnson,-'coopetition'-is-a-winning-strategy. 

References

• Adam Brandenburger, Barry Nalebuff 1996 Co-Opetition : A Revolution Mindset That Combines Competition and Cooperation ISBN 0-385-47950-6

External links

• Strategic co-opetition: The value of relationships in the networked economy, A perspective from IBM
• The website to accompany the book Co-opetition by Adam M Brandenburger and Barry J Nalebuff
• Channel Register: The ugly truth about coopetition
• Coopetition in the new economy: Collaboration Among Competitors
• FIRST Values: Coopertition
• 2010 FIRST Robotics Competition:Coopertition Award
• Patent 7,507,169: Method for Creating Coopertition