Managing coopetitive innovation: sharing while protecting knowledge in separated project teams

Existing research on coopetition acknowledges the dilemma companies face regarding sharing and protecting knowledge when developing coopetitive product innovation. To manage this dilemma, coopetitors can rely on two different organizational designs: the coopetitive project team (CPT) or the separated project team (SPT). The CPT fosters high knowledge sharing but creates uncertainty about knowledge protection. In contrast, the SPT limits the knowledge sharing but offers higher knowledge protection. While the CPT design has been studied in‐depth, the SPT design remains an underexplored black box. We know little about how knowledge is shared and protected within the SPT. To fill this gap, we conducted an ethnographic case study of a joint innovation project using SPT in the Chinese electric car industry. Our research shows how the SPT design manages the necessary knowledge sharing while protecting the knowledge. The project managers facilitate knowledge sharing by acting as the interface coordinator with the coopetitor, and the knowledge protection is guaranteed by a strict separation between the two coopetitors' operators. In SPT, the nature and the management of knowledge flows are not rigid but evolve according to the project stage.