Summary: | 碩士 === 靜宜大學 === 企業管理研究所 === 93 === Coopetition has been regarded as “competition and cooperation”, less attention has been paid on “competition in cooperation”. Prior research studied internal competition focusing on more in intra-organizational settings other than in inter-organizational settings. The debate, whether internal competition in an alliance or network positively or negatively impacts on performance, has not yet reached a convergent conclusion. Previous scholars have asserted the positive effect as well as the negative effect. However, internal competition could be beneficial if it has been well-managed. The association between internal competition and performance may vary with the management mechanisms in the alliances or networks. Thus, the purpose of this article is to address the issue of managing internal competition in cooperative networks. Conducting by in-depth case study of a healthcare network with eight hospital members in Taiwan, this study analyzes how a network managed the inter-partner competition to contribute to performance. Qualitative results reveal the findings that (1) when the intensity of internal competition is strong, low-employment of management mechanism is positively associated with performance, but high-employment of management mechanism is negatively associated with performance. (2) when the intensity of internal competition is weak, high-employment of management mechanism is positively correlated with performance, but low-employment of management mechanism is negatively correlated with performance. This article proposes the propositions for future research and the implications for practices.
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