Summer 2016
Article
California Management Review

Dynamic Capabilities at Samsung: Optimizing Internal Co-opetition

By: Jaeyong Song, Kyungmook Lee and Tarun Khanna

Format:Print

Abstract

This article presents a clinical study, based on a decade of ongoing research at Samsung Group, which describes how the Samsung Group and its mobile phone division competed successfully in smartphones. The ability to manage co-opetition—simultaneous forces of competition and cooperation within the business group—is a particular dimension of dynamic capability that has stood Samsung in excellent stead. Relying on internal exhortations to cooperate often leads to a lack of dynamism, whereas untrammeled competition leaves proverbial synergies entirely untapped and spawns duplicative investments. Samsung, however, has succeeded by its ability to strike a balance between the two.

Keywords

Competition; Business Divisions; Cooperation; Mobile Technology

Citation

Song, Jaeyong, Kyungmook Lee, and Tarun Khanna. "Dynamic Capabilities at Samsung: Optimizing Internal Co-opetition." California Management Review 58, no. 4 (Summer 2016): 118–140.