The Behavioral Coopetitor Profile

Abstract

The Behavioural Coopetitor Profile (BCP), developed by Klimas et al. (2025), is a specialized psychometric instrument designed to quantify the behavioral dynamics within inter-organizational strategic partnerships, specifically those involving cooperating competitors (or coopetitors). The scale comprises 28 items and was constructed through a rigorous methodology integrating extensive desk research, field studies, and comprehensive psychometric analyses. Initial validation and evaluation were performed using a sample of managers sourced from Polish manufacturing companies. The reported results confirm strong evidence for the instrument’s validity and reliability, particularly concerning its underlying factor structure.

Keywords

Cooperating Competitors, Inter-Organizational Strategic Partnerships, Behavioral Components, Coopetitor Profiles, Conflict, Formality, Investments, Trust, Competition Intensity, Collaboration, Competition, Cooperation, Organizational Behavior, Organizational and Occupational Measures

Authors

Klimas, Patrycja, Sachpazidu, Karina, Stańczyk, Sylwia, Kawa, Arkadiusz, Nadolny, Michał

Purpose

The primary objective of the Behavioural Coopetitor Profile is to provide a standardized, multidimensional assessment of the behavioral components that characterize the profile of organizations engaged in coopetition. By quantifying these specific behaviors, the scale allows researchers and practitioners to better understand the complex interplay between competitive and cooperative actions within strategic alliances.

The instrument is crucial for dissecting the duality inherent in coopetitive relationships, offering insights into how factors like trust and conflict simultaneously shape organizational outcomes. It aims to move beyond simple descriptive accounts to provide measurable dimensions of these strategic interactions.

Construct

The core psychological construct measured by the BCP is Organizational Coopetitor Behavior. This construct captures the observable actions and established norms governing the relationship between two competing entities that also collaborate strategically.

Through psychometric refinement, the construct was empirically validated as a five-dimensional profile. These five distinct behavioral components or subscales are:

• Competition Intensity: The degree of rivalry perceived or enacted within the partnership.
• Conflict: The presence and management of disagreements or tensions.
• Formality: The extent to which the relationship is governed by explicit rules, contracts, and standardized procedures.
• Investments: The commitment of resources (time, capital, personnel) dedicated to the strategic partnership.
• Trust: The level of confidence in the partner’s reliability and integrity.

Validity

The validity of the BCP was established using rigorous psychometric testing, focusing particularly on construct validity through structural equation modeling (SEM).

Convergent Validity was strongly supported. Standardized factor loadings for all items exceeded the threshold of 0.5. Furthermore, all Composite Reliabilities (CRs) were greater than 0.7 (as per Bagozzi et al., 1991), and all Average Variance Extracted (AVE) values were above 0.5 (Fornell & Larcker, 1981). These results collectively confirm that the items within each factor are highly correlated and successfully measure their intended latent construct.

Discriminant Validity was also confirmed for the five retained behavioral variables. This evidence ensures that the dimensions are distinct from one another. Specifically, the square root of the AVE for each variable was greater than the absolute value of the correlation between that variable and any other variable in the model, satisfying the stringent criteria for construct differentiation.

Reliability

The reliability of the Behavioural Coopetitor Profile was assessed primarily through internal consistency measures across its five established variables.

Internal Consistency was evaluated using Cronbach’s alpha. The alpha coefficients for the five variables demonstrated excellent reliability, falling within the accepted tolerance range of 0.7 to 0.95, as recommended by DeVellis & Thorpe (2021). The minimum alpha recorded was 0.857, and the maximum was 0.916, indicating high internal consistency and reliability across all subscales of the instrument.

Factor Analysis

Both Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) were employed during the scale development process to establish the underlying structure of the 28 items.

The final iteration of the Exploratory Factor Analysis provided robust evidence supporting a good fit and strong construct consistency for the five key behavioral features: competition intensity, conflict, formality, investments, and trust. This analysis confirmed that the items clustered logically into these distinct dimensions.

Confirmatory Factor Analysis further validated the proposed five-factor model. Absolute quality indices confirmed the model’s good fit to the empirical data. Crucially, relative fit indices, including the NFI (Normed Fit Index), the IFI (Incremental Fit Index), and the TLI (Tucker-Lewis Index), were all reported well above the minimum acceptable threshold of 0.9. Parsimony fit indices and noncentrality-based indices also met established thresholds, confirming the overall structural integrity of the BCP.

Instrument

Test Type: Original

Format: Items are rated on a 7-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree).

Language Available: No data is Available

Population Group: Human; Male; Female

Age Group: Adulthood (18 yrs & older)

Population Details: Respondents were Managers located in Poland, specifically within manufacturing companies.

Test Methodology: Test Validity; Convergent Validity; Discriminant Validity; Test Reliability; Internal Consistency; Factor Analysis; Confirmatory Factor Analysis; Exploratory Factor Analysis

Keywords

Cooperating Competitors, Inter-Organizational Strategic Partnerships, Behavioral Components, Coopetitor Profiles, Conflict, Formality, Investments, Trust, Competition Intensity, Collaboration, Competition, Cooperation, Organizational Behavior, Organizational and Occupational Measures

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: No data is Available

Affiliation Email addresses: Klimas, Patrycja: [email protected]; Sachpazidu, Karina: [email protected]; Stańczyk, Sylwia: [email protected]; Kawa, Arkadiusz: [email protected]; Nadolny, Michał: [email protected]

Correspondence Address: Klimas, Patrycja: Wroclaw University of Economics and Business, Department of Advanced Research in Management, Komandorska 118/120, Wrocław, Poland, 53-345, [email protected]

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

Test Year: 2025

Permissions: Contact Corresponding Author (Patrycja Klimas).

Fee: No fee is associated with the instrument’s use (as reported by the authors).

Reference’s

Klimas, P., Sachpazidu, K., Stańczyk, S., Kawa, A., & Nadolny, M. (2025). The 5-dimensional behavioural coopetitor profile: How to measure it? Industrial Marketing Management, 124, 287–303. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2024.12.003

Bagozzi, R. P., Yi, Y., & Singh, S. (1991). On the use of structural equation models in experimental designs: Two extensions. International Journal of Research in Marketing, 8(2), 125-140.

DeVellis, R. F., & Thorpe, C. T. (2021). Scale development: Theory and applications (5th ed.). SAGE Publications, Inc.

Fornell, C., & Larcker, D. F. (1981). Evaluating structural equation models with unobservable variables and measurement error. Journal of Marketing Research, 18(1), 39-50.

Items of the The Behavioural Coopetitor Profile

IMPORTANT: The following scale items must be preserved in their original language and must not be changed in any way.

This is a 28-item scale.
Subscales: Conflict; Formality; Competition intensity; Investments; Trust.
Test Items Available: No
Number of items:This is a 28-item scale.
Factors and Subscales:Subscales: Conflict; Formality; Competition intensity; Investments; Trust.