Coopetition within the entrepreneurial ecosystem: startups' entrepreneurial learning processes and their implications for new venture performance

Purpose This paper aims to explore coopetition within the entrepreneurial ecosystem and answer the following two fundamental questions: How does coopetition affect the entrepreneurial learning and performance of startups? and What learning strategies should startups adopt to promote their growth in the coopetition activities? Design/methodology/approach Using the structural equation model and instrumental variable, this study used a sample of 371 startups to test the hypotheses. Data comes from startups in Jiangsu, Shanghai and Zhejiang, China. Findings This study finds that the coopetition-performance relationship of startups is marginally negative. This study also finds that exploitative learning and exploratory learning positively mediate this relationship. Ecosystem's social capital can enhance the coopetition-exploration relationship, but the coopetition-exploitation relationship is not affected. Originality/value Many studies propose that the coopetition-performance relationship is ambiguous, which makes it meaningful to explore startups individually. Based on the resource-based view and the knowledge-based view, this study deepen the works of Bouncken and Fredrich (2016c), that is, how startups can learn and grow through coopetition activities. This study proposes that coopetition is one of the foundations of the ecosystem and explore the coopetition-performance relationship in this special context. Thus, the present paper adds to the budding literature on the effects of the entrepreneurial ecosystem and to the literature on coopetition.