Coopetitive IJVs: a strategy of managing the internationalisation challenges in China

In order for International Joint Ventures (IJVs) to succeed, it is essential to manage the challenges related to internationalisation. IJVs can be seen as cooperative, however, there is often a simultaneous cooperative and competitive, i.e., coopetitive, relationship between the companies involved. There is scarce research related to how coopetition can facilitate internationalisation, although coopetitive business relationships have been shown to increase value and performance of firms. This paper aims to explore how coopetitive IJVs can be used to manage challenges related to internationalisation into China. The empirical part is based on illustrative qualitative case study research including five cases of coopetitive IJVs in the automotive industry. The study sheds new light on the connectedness of IJVs and coopetition. Our findings show that through coopetitive IJVs, internationalisation challenges are managed by exchanging complementary and homogeneous resources. Moreover, our findings indicate the value of a dynamic and gradually developing competition between firms.