The individual manager in the spotlight: Protecting sensitive knowledge in inter-firm coopetition relationships

When firms collaborate with their competitors (i.e., engage in coopetition), individual managers play a pivotal role in protecting their firm's sensitive knowledge from potential misuse by partners. But which managers are more successful in performing this role? To better understand the senior-level human resources who help secure a firm's competitive advantage, we build on the Upper Echelons Theory and explore how managers' cognitions and values, as expressed in their demographic characteristics, influence knowledge protection in coopetitive relationships. To test our hypotheses, we use multi-source, time-lagged data on a sample of 176 small and medium-sized firms involved in coopetition. Our results suggest that managers' tenure and female gender relate positively to knowledge protection, which in turn contributes to subsequent firm performance, whereas managers' age and higher education impact knowledge protection negatively. On this basis, our study helps develop micro-macro linkages between the Upper Echelons Theory and the Resource-Based View, and reveals how different managerial characteristics influence knowledge protection, thereby threatening or securing sustainable firm performance. We discuss the implications for knowledge protection processes and human resource management.