Abstract
This study investigates the management of internal coopetitive tensions among business units (BUs) in multiunit organizations from a management-control perspective. Existing research on internal coopetitive management has acknowledged the role of principles and mechanisms in managing these tensions but has paid less attention to the role of controls. Drawing from the literature on management control, we follow the package perspective, which suggests combining technical and social controls to manage tensions in organizations. The question becomes how a package of technical and social controls can manage coopetitive tensions. This longitudinal case study of a leading French multiunit company in the banking industry therefore (1) provides evidence of coopetitive tensions between two BUs; (2) highlights how a package of controls was used to manage these coopetitive tensions; (3) demonstrates how this package increased competition and generated competitive tensions between the BUs; and (4) describes how a new combination of controls was adapted to manage these additional tensions. These findings thus enrich the coopetition management literature by revealing (1) the essential role of controls in managing internal coopetitive relationships among BUs; (2) the package of controls for effectively managing internal coopetition; and (3) the dynamic interactions between the use of controls and tensions among BUs.
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Notes
Source: Financial Stability Board.
In italics are the questions that were added for the second round of interviews.
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Acknowledgements
This research benefitted from the financial support of LabEx Entrepreneurship (University of Montpellier, France), funded by the French government (LabEx Entreprendre, ANR-10 Labex-11-01).
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Appendices
Appendix A. Information about the interviewees
Interview n° | Position of the interviewee | Duration | Profile of the interviewee | Period |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | BPCE Administrator | 45 min | Male ~ 60 years old | 2009–2015 |
2 | CE Administrator | 45 min | Male ~ 60 years old | 2009–2015 |
3 | BPCE Manager | 60 min | Male ~ 50 years old | 2009–2015 |
4 | CE Dir Change (key informant) | 120 min | Male ~ 50 years old | 2009–2015 |
5 | CE Director of Organization | 30 min | Male ~ 55 years old | 2009–2015 |
6 | BPCE Director | 30 min | Male ~ 55 years old | 2009–2015 |
7 | CE Director | 120 min | Male ~ 55 years old | 2009–2015 |
8 | CE Director | 60 min | Male ~ 50 years old | 2009–2015 |
9 | BPCE Manager | 60 min | Male ~ 55 years old | 2009–2015 |
10 | CE Manager | 60 min | Male ~ 55 years old | 2009–2015 |
11 | BPCE IT Manager | 60 min | Male ~ 55 years old | 2009–2015 |
12 | CE CIO | 60 min | Male ~ 55 years old | 2009–2015 |
13 | BPCE Commercial Director | 60 min | Male ~ 50 years old | 2009–2015 |
14 | BP Innovation Manager | 45 min | Male ~ 45 years old | 2009–2015 |
15 | BPCE Data Manager | 45 min | Male ~ 35 years old | 2009–2015 |
16 | BP Data Manager | 45 min | Male ~ 35 years old | 2009–2015 |
17 | BPCE Data Manager | 45 min | Male ~ 40 years old | 2009–2015 |
18 | BPCE Data Manager | 45 min | Male ~ 40 years old | 2009–2015 |
19 | CE Project Manager | 45 min | Male ~ 35 years old | 2009–2015 |
20 | BPCE Manager | 45 min | Male ~ 35 years old | 2009–2015 |
21 | CE Project Manager | 45 min | Male ~ 45 years old | 2009–2015 |
22 | CE Sales Manager | 45 min | Female ~ 50 years old | 2009–2015 |
23 | BPCE Sales Manager project | 45 min | Female ~ 50 years old | 2009–2015 |
24 | CE Manager | 45 min | Male ~ 45 years old | 2009–2015 |
25 | CE Project Manager | 45 min | Male ~ 45 years old | 2009–2015 |
26 | CE Manager | 45 min | Male ~ 45 years old | 2009–2015 |
27 | CE Security IT manager (key informant) | 90 min | Male ~ 45 years old | 2009–2015 |
28 | CE Formation IT manager | 45 min | Male ~ 45 years old | 2009–2015 |
29 | CE Credit Card Manager | 45 min | Male ~ 55 years old | 2009–2015 |
30 | BPCE IT Manager | 45 min | Male ~ 55 years old | 2009–2015 |
31 | CE Manager | 45 min | Male ~ 55 years old | 2009–2015 |
32 | CE Manager | 45 min | Male ~ 55 years old | 2009–2015 |
33 | BPCE Manager | 45 min | Male ~ 55 years old | 2009–2015 |
34 | CE Manager | 60 min | Male ~ 55 years old | 2009–2015 |
35 | BPCE Manager | 60 min | Male ~ 55 years old | 2009–2015 |
36 | BPCE CIO Manager | 45 min | Male ~ 45 years old | 2016–2022 |
37 | BP Innovation Director (key informant) | 140 min | Male ~ 55 years old | 2016–2022 |
38 | BP CEO (key informant) | 45 min | Male ~ 55 years old | 2016–2022 |
39 | BPCE Director | 45 min | Male ~ 55 years old | 2016–2022 |
40 | BP Chief Financial Officer | 45 min | Female ~ 50 years old | 2016–2022 |
41 | CE Steering Manager | 45 min | Male ~ 45 years old | 2016–2022 |
42 | BPCE Manager | 45 min | Male ~ 45 years old | 2016–2022 |
43 | BP Marketing manager | 45 min | Male ~ 40 years old | 2016–2022 |
44 | BP Data Partner | 45 min | Male ~ 40 years old | 2016–2022 |
45 | CE Artificial Intelligence Project manager | 45 min | Male ~ 40 years old | 2016–2022 |
46 | BPCE AI Manager | 45 min | Male ~ 40 years old | 2016–2022 |
47 | BPCE Project Manager | 45 min | Male ~ 45 years old | 2016–2022 |
48 | CE CRM manager | 45 min | Female ~ 45 years old | 2016–2022 |
49 | CE Project Manager | 45 min | Female ~ 45 years old | 2016–2022 |
50 | BP Saving Loan Manager | 45 min | Female ~ 45 years old | 2016–2022 |
51 | BP Manager | 45 min | Male ~ 55 years old | 2016–2022 |
52 | BP Project Manager | 45 min | Male ~ 45 years old | 2016–2022 |
53 | BPCE Sale Director | 30 min | Male ~ 45 years old | 2016–2022 |
54 | BP Sales Director | 30 min | Male ~ 45 years old | 2016–2022 |
55 | BP IT Manager (key informant) | 30 min | Male ~ 45 years old | 2016–2022 |
56 | CE Manager | 60 min | Male ~ 55 years old | 2016–2022 |
57 | BPCE Manager | 40 min | Male ~ 35 years old | 2016–2022 |
Appendix B. The interview guide
Introduction | Presentation of the study (context and objectives) Introduction to the interviewee |
Internal coopetition | Could you describe the relationships between the BUs? Why and how do the BUs cooperate? Why and how do the BUs compete? (internally and externally) |
Coopetitive tensions between the BUs | Could you share with us your experience of joint activities and/or projects? What are the objectives? What are the results? How does each BU contribute to these projects? Why? How is the value created and distributed among the BUs? What are the difficulties encountered at the project level? Do you share information about other projects with the partner team? Why? How? How is knowledge managed? What do you share or not share? Why? Are there risks associated with knowledge transfer? Have you experienced some tensions between the BUs? Can you talk more about them (why, how, when?) How have such tensions been managed? What controls have been used? Who was in charge? Have you experienced some learning between the BUs? Can you talk more about that (why, how, when?) |
Management control to manage the tensions | Can you describe the controls used at the business level and/or at the company level? How were they designed? For what purposes were they designed? (i.e., alignment of interests; uncertainty monitoring; information asymmetry; performance evaluationFootnote 2) Can you describe their implementation/use? Did you encounter difficulties in their use? |
Implications of the use of management control | What do you think about the management controls designed/implemented by the company? Have you encountered difficulties using management controls designed by the company? How so? Why? How have you solved these difficulties? Do you think the controls facilitated the cooperation between the BUs? Why? How? Do you think the controls facilitated the cooperation with headquarters? Why? How? Do you think the controls fostered the competition between the BUs? Why How? What do you think about the effectiveness of the initial controls? Why? What are the most salient/unintended consequences of the use of these controls? How did the company and the BUs adapt to these undesirable consequences? |
Conclusion | Anything you would like to add? Any recommendation for other interviews? Acknowledgments and greetings |
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Séran, T., Fernandez, AS. & Chappert, H. Managing coopetition in multi-unit organizations: a management-control perspective. Rev Manag Sci (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11846-023-00697-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11846-023-00697-y
Keywords
- Internal coopetition
- Coopetitive tensions
- Multiunit organizations
- Technical control
- Social control
- Package of controls
- Case study