Collaborating with Competitors Across Domestic and International Markets

Abstract Since small enterprises face diverse opportunities and challenges across their domestic and international markets, coopetition (cooperation among competitors) could have different performance outcomes and boundary conditions in these arenas. Therefore, guided by resource‐based theory (RBT), this study unpacks the coopetition–small‐firm performance relationship in domestic and international markets. Two phases of survey data were collected from small wine producers in New Zealand, respectively examining domestic and international coopetition activities. The results showed that domestic coopetition negatively affects small‐firm performance, but competitive intensity positively moderates this link. In contrast, international coopetition positively impacts small‐firm performance while competitive intensity negatively influences this association. Subsequently, qualitative evidence was utilized to explain the counter‐intuitive quantitative findings. Collectively, this study contributes to the strategic management literature with unique insights about the varied performance outcomes and boundary conditions of coopetition across domestic and international markets. This investigation also advances the extended facets of RBT (inside‐the‐firm factors, alongside issues pertaining to environmental forces and stakeholder relationships) as a lens for conceptualizing coopetition domestically and internationally.