Keeping things cordial: Competition, cooperation and coopetition in venture capital syndicates

Y., Zhong, Yan; A., Wang, Ami; R.H., Aalbers, Rick H.L.; K.J., McCarthy, Killian J.; R., Zhang, Ruling. Journal of Business Research. DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2025.115638

Firms increasingly find themselves in coopetitive situations − collaborating with rivals to co-create value while simultaneously competing with them to capture it. Research offers mixed insights, however, into when coopetition enhances or undermines performance. This study draws on network theory to examine how embedded interfirm relationships shape the outcomes of coopetition. We theorize that two forms of embeddedness—relational (direct, trust-based ties) and structural (indirect, network-spanning connections)—moderate the relationship between competition and performance. Using data on 56,953 venture capital (VC) funding rounds involving 4,024 investors and 5,123 start-ups, we find that prior cooperative ties enhance syndicate performance, while prior competitive ties follow an inverted U-shaped pattern. Crucially, we show that these effects are interdependent: moderate competition boosts performance when prior cooperation is low, while low competition is more beneficial when relational embeddedness is high. We triangulate our findings with interviews from senior industry experts representing over 60 years of collective experience. In so doing, we reconceptualize coopetition as a context-dependent capability, extend embeddedness theory to paradoxical dynamics. We also offer concrete guidance for managers and practitioners embedded in interfirm relationships defined as coopetition. © 2025 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

Artificial intelligence and dynamic capabilities: how startups can thrive in entrepreneurial ecosystems amid disruptive change

A., Cimino, Antonio; C., Troise, Ciro; V., Corvello, Vincenzo; S., Bresciani, Stefano. International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal. DOI: 10.1007/s11365-025-01146-w

Artificial intelligence has emerged as a leading force among disruptive technologies, significantly reshaping the business landscape. Startups, due to their agility and innovation potential, are uniquely positioned to leverage artificial intelligence’s transformative power. This study investigates how the strategic behavior of startups influences their success within entrepreneurial ecosystems, particularly during periods marked by rapid technological disruption. Employing the dynamic capabilities framework, the research introduces a theoretical model to evaluate entrepreneurial ecosystems success across two dimensions: the organizational level, which pertains to individual startup outcomes, and the ecosystem level, which reflects the broader ecosystem’s performance. The model’s validity was tested through structural equation modeling using a partial least squares approach, based on data from a structured survey of 210 startups listed in Italy’s official Business Register of Innovative Startups. Results reveal a strong, positive relationship between startups’ dynamic capabilities and the performance of entrepreneurial ecosystems in times of disruptive change. Moreover, the integration of artificial intelligence is identified as a key driver of ecosystem-wide success. The paper concludes with practical insights for startups navigating disruptive environments and outlines directions for future research. © 2025 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

Innovation ecosystem resilience as a “coping” strategy to face deglobalization: The role of entrepreneurial orientation and affective/cognitive responses

L., Pizzichini, Lucia; M., Farina Briamonte, Massimiliano; A., Papa, Armando; M.D., Giudice, Manlio Del. Technovation. DOI: 10.1016/j.technovation.2025.103334

Global warming, pandemics, and geopolitical tensions are accelerating deglobalization, challenging the openness and collaboration that typically underpin innovation ecosystems. While innovation increasingly relies on openness, deglobalization fosters more polarized and nationally bounded systems. In this context, understanding how local innovation ecosystems respond remains a critical yet underexplored question. This study redefines local innovation ecosystem resilience as a multidimensional coping mechanism, encompassing both structural and psychological dimensions. Drawing on existing literature, we conceptualize resilience as the integration of entrepreneurial orientation (innovativeness, proactiveness, and risk-taking) with cognitive and affective responses to uncertainty. Through two experimental studies, we examine how innovation ecosystem resilience mediates the effect of high (vs. low) deglobalization on intentions to invest in new technologies. The first study operationalizes resilience via entrepreneurial orientation, while the second study captures cognitive and emotional coping mechanisms. Results show that high degrees of globalisation increase intentions to invest in technological innovation, and that this relationship is mediated by ecosystem resilience across both structural and psychological dimensions. Furthermore, we identify a moderating effect of local ecosystem ethnocentricity: higher ethnocentric tendencies strengthen the positive link between deglobalization and investment intentions. This research advances theory on innovation ecosystems by demonstrating that resilience, anchored in both entrepreneurial structures and psychological adaptability, plays a critical role in enabling strategic responses to global disruptions. Implications for policy and management include fostering resilience-oriented mindsets and capabilities to sustain innovation amid growing geopolitical and economic volatility. © 2025 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

Circular Economy Policies and Business Models in the EU Renewable Energy Sector: The Case of Solar Photovoltaic Industry

R., Nyffenegger, Roger; B., Baldassarre, Brian; N.M.P., Bocken, Nancy M.P.; S.N., Groesser, Stefan N. Business Strategy and the Environment. DOI: 10.1002/bse.70188

The circular economy is an approach to decouple economic growth from environmental impacts. In Europe, its development is driven by policies that guide market dynamics through regulations and by businesses innovating with new circular models. However, top-down policies and bottom-up business efforts are often misaligned, and their interplay remains poorly understood. This study addresses this knowledge gap through a case study in the renewable energy sector. We investigate to what extent circular economy policies influence the emergence, diffusion, and scaling of circular business models in the solar industry. We identify four archetypes of business models, explaining how they function, interact, and whether they align with intended policy goals. As a result, we propose six industrial and policy interventions to improve circularity, thus waste management and resource security in the sector. Conceptually, we outline three key circular business model patterns: policy-gap-exploiter, policy-follower, and policy-pioneering. These insights contribute to bridging the gap between policymaking and business innovation. © 2025 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

Ecosystem synergies as drivers of acquisitions

N., Burford, Natalie; A.V., Shipilov, Andrew V.; N.R., Furr, Nathan R. Strategic Management Journal. DOI: 10.1002/smj.3729

Research Summary: We examine how the structure of ecosystems shapes firms’ acquisition choices. We develop a theoretical framework comprising three levels of ecosystem structure – local interdependence, clusters, and centrality – that could drive choices of M&A targets based on expected ecosystem synergies, a previously undocumented acquisition synergy that creates benefits for the acquirer and the ecosystem overall. Ecosystem synergy is value created through combination of the acquirer and target's ecosystem positions that improves the combined firm's alignment with third-party complementors. Such synergies manifest themselves in increased attractiveness of the firms’ components to third parties by strengthening, attracting, or connecting complementarities. In the setting of the e-commerce technology industry, our results show that firms acquire targets to increase local interdependence of their components and their presence in component clusters. Managerial Summary: Innovation ecosystems are critical for firms’ performance. While prior research has established the importance of ecosystems and firms’ positioning within ecosystems, we do not actually know whether and how ecosystem structure shapes firms’ acquisition choices. In this article, we show that M&A targets are not chosen solely for the value created by the acquirer or target, but also for their broader ecosystem synergies. Ecosystem synergies are a previously undocumented acquisition synergy (distinct from internal synergies and market power) that manifest themselves in increased attractiveness of firms’ post-acquisition components to third parties by strengthening, attracting, or connecting complementarities. We test our theory by mapping the ecosystem structure of 6187 technological components that drives 186 acquisitions in the e-commerce technology sector during the period 2013 to 2021. © 2025 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

How digital technologies enhance competitiveness in manufacturing SMEs

A.A.A., da Silva, Agostinho Antunes A.; I.D., de Almeida, Isabel Duarte; A.T.M., Dionísio, Andreia Teixeira Marques; C.M., Rabadão, Carlos M.S.; C.A., Capela, C. Alexandre. Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship. 10.1186/s13731-025-00576-8

This study examines how digital technologies influence the competitiveness of manufacturing small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), with a focus on labor productivity and export performance. Using a sample of 669 firms in the Portuguese ornamental stone sector, a framework was applied to evaluate five levels of digital maturity through a quantitative approach. This analysis covers five years after the investment and combines digital profiling with scenario-based forecasts. Results, presented in figures and tables, indicate a positive link between digital maturity and firm performance, with higher digitalisation levels correlating with increased productivity and export efficiency. For example, the most digitally mature firms experienced labor productivity increase significantly, and their digital investments yielded returns very handsomely for every euro invested. These findings, while illustrative, depend on specific contextual factors and assume ongoing digital adoption. This study offers a replicable model for evaluating digital revolution in traditional industries, supporting SME policy development and strategic planning. © 2025 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

Green-go: A green innovation competitiveness index

B., Algieri, Bernardina; A., Aquino, Antonio; M., Succurro, Marianna. Sustainable Futures. DOI: 10.1016/j.sftr.2025.101062

This study proposes a Green Innovation Competitiveness Index based on green patents, presented in both general and adjusted-symmetric versions. The suggested index is suitable for computing the green innovation competitive advantage or disadvantage of countries and, hence, analysing the green specialisation and geographical patterns of green innovations around the world. The symmetric innovation competitiveness index has been combined with international trade data and used as an additional explanatory variable of export determinants for a group of countries (China, France, Germany, Japan, Italy, Spain, the UK and the USA), thereby capturing the non-price green competitiveness of these countries. The empirical evidence indicates that both non-price green and non-green competitiveness have a positive impact on export volumes. The suggested index can be useful for future developments of cross-country empirical analysis and the design of effective policy measures. © 2025 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

A data-driven approach to establishing a patent strategy by generating a patent map based on generative topographic mapping

J., Jung, Jaehoon; S., Kim, Sunhye; B., Yoon, Byungun. Technological Forecasting and Social Change. DOI: 10.1016/j.techfore.2025.124325

As competition among companies intensifies through patents, the need for the strategic utilization and visualization of these patents is growing. However, establishing a patent strategy often relies on subjective insights from experts, which presents a significant limitation. Accordingly, this study aims to develop an analytical methodology that identifies the competitive landscape in technology and business, visualizes patent strategies, and helps in formulating future patent strategies with a focus on technical feature information. Initially, the methodology involves extracting the subject–action–object (SAO) structure from patent data, followed by the visualization of a patent map using generative topographic mapping (GTM). K-means clustering is then applied to further segment sub-technical areas. Subsequently, technology nodes on the GTM map are characterized from the perspective of companies. This process helps in deriving patent strategy patterns that reflect both technological competition and strategic intentions. Future patent strategies are established by scoring these patterns based on predictions of company occupancy using GTM-based classification (GTC) model-based vacuum nodes and other strategic quantitative indicators. This methodology particularly highlights the intersections between technological advancement and corporate competitiveness. An empirical study focusing on the autonomous vehicle industry validates the effectiveness of this methodology in providing insights about leveraging patent strategies for technological leadership. The significant contribution of this study lies in its proposition of a patent map enriched with detailed technical information from patents and the quantification and visualization of patent strategies, guiding the direction for future patent strategizing. © 2025 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

A Framework on Eudaimonic Well-Being in Destination Competitiveness

E.M., Sarmento, Eduardo Moraes; S.M.C., Loureiro, Sandra María Correia; Z., Mendes, Zorro; J.M., Monteiro, José Mascarenhas; S., Fernandes, Sandra. Tourism and Hospitality. DOI: 10.3390/tourhosp6030135

This research proposes a framework for Eudaimonic well-being in destination competitiveness. This framework is based on the theoretical Ritchie and Crouch’s model (1993, 2000, 2003) and the recent theoretical notion that a travel trip may influence life satisfaction through tourists’ experiences. We conducted a qualitative study based on 34 in-depth interviews with key tourism stakeholders in Cape Verde, a small island developing country (SIDS) dependent on the tourism sector. The findings contribute to identifying specific sources of positive and negative effects that may affect the tourists’ and residents’ overall sense of well-being and thus affect the overall destination competitiveness. © 2025 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

Predicting tourism competitiveness with innovation: a machine learning approach

H.E., Arici, Hasan Evrim; M.A., Köseoglu, Mehmet Ali; L., Altinay, Levent. Current Issues in Tourism. DOI: 10.1080/13683500.2025.2550657

This study introduces an analytical model that establishes a connection between the factors that promote innovation in a country and the competitiveness of its tourism destinations. Invoking the international strategic competitiveness theory, this study is among the first to propose and empirically test the predictive roles of innovation facilitators on tourism competitiveness. Utilising longitudinal data from multiple countries from 2013 to 2022, we ran machine learning algorithms. The results show that several innovation facilitators, such as research and development and trade, diversification, and market scale, significantly predict competitiveness in tourism destinations. The results of this investigation enhance our knowledge of innovation and competitiveness in tourism locations globally. © 2025 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.