Cooperatition
The problem & case studies | Cooperatition | Competition law and voluntary agreements | Country profiles |Responsibility Deals
As the name suggests, Cooperatition describes a process of balancing cooperation and competition.In the market context this allows for the appropriate prioritisation public policy (including environmental and social objectives) and consumer welfare.In particular, we believe that this prioritisation should be spread throughout all parts of the marketplace (into Big Society), rather than restricting public policy issues to the regulatory sphere.
Our assessment is that current features of the marketplace, in particular various perceptions of competition law, are inhibiting public policy outcomes.Therefore we advocate sector-wide agreements between competitors that favour public policy outcomes, where any harm to consumer welfare concerns is not disproportionate. Such agreements must be sector-wide to avoid first-mover-disadvantage/ prisoner’s-dilemma-type/ free-rider issues.They should also be implemented separately by each business involved to the maximum extent possible, so that each business will strive to implement in the most efficient and innovative way possible. Based on definition by Tom Linton.
“BT, in the UK, is identified with a view that sees a few companies emerging to dominate the global industry. It is even possible to infer the rise of a single dominant company, around the world. The mechanism to reach this result is a classic competition among combatants, and competition will define relations among any survivors. BT acknowledges, though, that there will be some coordination at the physical transport level, where one network interconnects physically with another.
“In contrast MCI, in the US, has proposed a future in which consortia compete with each other. Individual companies gather into groups, which then compete with other groups to shape the future of global networks. Relations within the groups are marked, in MCI’s terminology, by “cooperatition” – a combination of collaboration and competition internal to the group. Almost as if to put a stronger stamp on this vision, MCI has proposed a directly parallel approach for personal communication systems (PCS)5 within the US. MCI has proposed that PCS in the US be developed by competing national consortia, including a mix of competition and cooperation internal to a group.”
‘Competing Visions for World Telecommunications: The Global Evolution of Industry Structure,’ David Allen in ‘The Race to European Eminence: Who Are the Coming Tele-Service Multinationals?’, Ove Grandstrand and Erik Bohlin, eds., North-Holland, Amsterdam, 1994
Cooperatition is mentioned again by Carole Bruce in 2004 and in 2006 Leon Brooks also uses the term in his blog.
“I say that we have cooperatition, not competition, here. No one is in it for themselves, and no one wants to see anybody go anywhere. We know the more vibrant the entire Old Town community is, the more vibrant our businesses will be.”
Charles Gilliam, 2008, The Washington Post
“…somewhat confusing world of cooperatition where in some cases you compete with an entity but in another instance it makes perfect sense to cooperate.”
David Anderson, Atradia consultancy’s website