Value appropriation in inter-firm coopetitive alliances: case of the Indian pharmaceutical industry

Abstract

Coopetition research is evolving in management practice, with an increasing number of firms relying on collaborating with competitors to boost up their product development and foster innovation. The competition and collaboration dualism in coopetitive alliances has led to a lot of coopetition research on value creation and value appropriation in strategic coopetitive alliances. Though inter-firm value appropriation has been studied in diverse settings, and the assortment of theoretical perspectives has been adopted, most research on inter-firm value appropriation has concentrated around either the firms’ bargaining power, or the isolating mechanisms deployed by firms to exploit or defend appropriation streams.

Our research approach is a qualitative study, intending to inform research about configurations of value appropriation by identifying the determinants of value appropriation in interfirm coopetitive alliances. We conduct a context interview with a senior leader from the Indian pharmaceutical industry (IPI) to propose a framework based on determinants influencing value appropriation in coopetitive interfirm alliances in the IPI. Overall, our results provide unique insights into how pharmaceutical firms in a coopetitive dyadic alliance perceive value appropriation, how different factors influence the value appropriation and provide guidance to managers on what factors or mechanisms can help in appropriating value in a coopetitive alliance. Further, we identify a set of opportunities for future research studies that may inspire the advancement of research on value appropriation in coopetitive alliances.