Antecedents and consequences of cooperative entrepreneurship: a conceptual model and empirical investigation

Although the perceived sufficiency of research on inter-organizational relationships, scant attention has been given to entrepreneurship fulfillment in this domain. This brings to the fore the need to advance the literature on ‘cooperative entrepreneurship’ referring, in general, to an inter-firm collaborative strategy developed principally to enhance partners’ entrepreneurial status. Therefore, stoking theoretical foundations of the cooperative entrepreneurship concept, the present study aims to identify the most important factors influencing and influenced by this strategy. A selective literature review led us to propose a conceptual model incorporating the cooperative entrepreneurship construct, its antecedents and the consequences. The results from 228 questionnaires filled in by managers serving in the automobile parts manufacturing industry provide fresh evidence for the significant positive impacts of partners’ entrepreneurial attitude, complementarity, and compatibility (as antecedents) on cooperative entrepreneurship, as well as the positive effects of cooperative entrepreneurship on firms’ agility, customer relationship management, learning, innovative, and sensing capabilities (as consequences). In addition to the proposed conceptual model, this research contributes to the literature by: conceptualizing entrepreneurial attitude at the level of business unit, identifying a number of indicators to measure cooperative entrepreneurship, and taking the dynamic capabilities perspective to propose the set of consequences. The practical implications are also discussed, especially targeting the cooperation partners’ senior managers.