Competitors as stakeholders: Extending nonmarket strategy

Abstract

A firm’s stakeholders are a necessary component in nonmarket strategies, yet consideration should go beyond the traditional nonmarket stakeholders of—for example, activist stakeholders—and should include market stakeholders as they can also participate in nonmarket strategies. Empirically we draw on three illustrative case studies that show the role of competitors participating in nonmarket strategies in a range of contexts. The key contribution of this paper is that collaboration with competitors can enable a variety of nonmarket strategies that advances the firms’ competitive position. This contribution is important as it demonstrates how collaboration with competitors—which would often be illegal in the context of market strategy—can be a legitimate approach to nonmarket strategy. In addition, we present three testable propositions regarding the sustainability of nonmarket strategies when they are undertaken with competitors.