Staying alive: Coopetition and competitor oriented behaviour from a pre- to post COVID-19 pandemic era

This study's objective is to investigate the extent to which coopetition (collaboration with rivals) and competitor-oriented practices (knowledge of and acting upon competitors' strengths and weaknesses) helped facilitate the development of owners' capabilities over the pre- through to the immediate post pandemic (COVID-19) period. A retrospective, longitudinal instrumental case study features the under-researched 3-year timescale up to the end of ‘lockdowns’ across most countries. Interviews (and secondary data collection) took place with owners of 40 Canadian restaurants associated with different cuisines and possessing respective weak and strong network ties in a single city. New findings highlight how coopetition and competitor-oriented practices facilitated the development and/or enhancement of ‘psychological contracts.’ In turn, knowledge of with whom to engage in coopetition activities and the extent of involvement, helped owners to avoid failure, maintain family employment, and sustain other local businesses. Additionally, strategic flexibility enabled owners to pivot aspects of their business models, develop foresight, plus resilience. Unique insights contribute to theory and practice, highlighting that coopetition and competitor-oriented practices changed during the evolving conditions of COVID-19. Owners rapidly transformed certain ‘operational’ capabilities into those of a higher level (namely, capabilities of a ‘threshold’ and potentially ‘dynamic’ nature) to meet changing objectives.