Co‐opetition, distributor's entrepreneurial orientation and manufacturer's knowledge acquisition: Evidence from China

Abstract By viewing cooperation and different types of conflicts as “co‐opetition” factors in a manufacturer–distributor supply chain, this paper provides a conceptual model for examining the effects of cooperation and conflicts on a manufacturer's knowledge acquisition process and for exploring the moderating effects of a distributor's entrepreneurial orientation on the relationships between co‐opetition factors and the manufacturer's knowledge acquisition. This conceptual model is tested with 225 dyad samples from manufacturer–distributor supply chains in China. The results show that cooperation and the type of conflict have both individual and interactive effects on the manufacturer's knowledge acquisition, thus highlighting the importance of the co‐opetition perspective on supply chain knowledge management. More importantly, the results show that the entrepreneurial orientation of a distributor positively moderates the relationships between co‐opetition factors and a manufacturer's knowledge acquisition, implying that strengthening the distributor's entrepreneurial orientation can improve the efficiency of co‐opetition and thereby affect the knowledge acquisition of the manufacturer, and highlighting the importance of blended analysis across the domains of supply chain management and entrepreneurship.