Alliance coopetition and breakthrough innovation: the contributory roles of resources integration and knowledge ambiguity

Based on coopetition literature, we deconstruct alliance coopetition to horizontal coopetition and vertical coopetition, so as to pursue deeper insight into the impacts of different types of alliance coopetition on breakthrough innovation in the context of the firm’s knowledge resource endowment. Drawing on the data extracted from 222 Chinese firms, we theorise and demonstrate that there is a positive relationship between alliance coopetition and breakthrough innovation and the incentive of alliance coopetition on breakthrough innovation performance is contingent on the resource integration ability of firms. In addition, we find the knowledge ambiguity positively moderates the direct effect of horizontal coopetition on firms’ resource integration, but negatively moderates the effect of vertical coopetition on firms’ resource integration. Our findings help to clarify the controversial relation between coopetition and innovation studies.