Does competitive aggressiveness negatively moderate the relationship between coopetition and customer satisfaction performance?

Although the existing marketing literature suggests that coopetition (simultaneous cooperation and competition) drives customer satisfaction performance, it is unclear whether hostile relations between industry rivals distorts this link. Thus, under resource-based theory and the relational view, this current paper examines the coopetition – customer satisfaction performance relationship under different degrees of competitive aggressiveness. Survey responses were obtained from a sample of 101 small wine producers in New Zealand, with such data passing all major reliability and validity checks (and common method bias). The results indicated that while coopetition has a positive association with customer satisfaction performance, this link is negatively moderated by competitive aggressiveness. These findings emphasise that on its own, coopetition is comprised of balanced levels of cooperativeness and competitiveness. Yet, competitively aggressive behaviours serve as firm-wide actions that can unhinge the coopetition paradox and prevent businesses from satisfying their customers’ wants and needs.