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  • Summer 2016
  • Article
  • California Management Review

Dynamic Capabilities at Samsung: Optimizing Internal Co-opetition

By: Jaeyong Song, Kyungmook Lee and Tarun Khanna
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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.
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About The Author

Tarun Khanna

Strategy
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More from the Authors
  • Firm-Induced Migration Paths and Strategic Human-Capital Outcomes By: Prithwiraj (Raj) Choudhury, Tarun Khanna and Victoria Sevcenko
  • Your Company Needs a Space Strategy. Now. By: Matthew Weinzierl, Prithwiraj (Raj) Choudhury, Tarun Khanna, Alan MacCormack and Brendan Rosseau
  • AES Corp: A Global Power Transformation By: Tarun Khanna, Allison M. Ciechanover and Matt Higgins
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