Cooperative Competition Strategies of Industrial Marketing in the Period of Covid-19 Disease

Although cooperation (simultaneous cooperation and competition) can have a positive effect on company performance, it is unclear how implementation of these business-to-business marketing strategies can take place during large-scale emergencies. Therefore, this article examines how organizations use cooperative competition to cope with the Covid-19 pandemic by benefiting from the resource-based theory and relational perspective. Prime examples include online stores, pharmaceutical organizations collaborating to produce vaccines, tech giants collaborating for greater profits, and charities forming alliances to create a common goal. This paper enhances the existing literature by highlighting the heterogeneity of cooperation strategies that firms can face in a global crisis. Industry players must balance the risks and benefits of collaborative activities. They also have to decide whether to continue working with their competitors after the end of the pandemic or to continue their activities based on individual business models. The paper concludes with some directions for future research.