Co-opetitive entrepreneurship : how to integrate competition in a co-operative context ?
Almost all research about co-opetition examines the emergence of co-operation in a competitive environment. Can competition emerge from a co-operative context ? While there is growing literature about indigenous entrepreneurship, this article focuses on competitive relationships among Sami people – the indigenous nation of northern Norway, Sweden and Finland and Russia’s Kola Peninsula. Reindeer herding, an activity traditionally done as a family, holds strong social value. Our ethnographic study reveals that maximisation of profits is not a sufficient explanatory variable to explain traditional reindeer herding. With limited economic returns from herding, many Sami herders rely on secondary occupations for supplementary income. To manage the resulting co-opetitive relationships, entrepreneurs compartmentalise co-operative relationships based on cultural and territorial issues, and competitive relationships based on economic considerations. Implications in terms of co-opetition and entrepreneurship are drawn.