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This chapter develops an on-going theory of coopetition management in knowledge-based industries. Coopetition is a strategy which combines simultaneously competitive and collaborative relationships. This combination permits companies to benefit from both the advantages of the competition and the advantage of collaboration. However, this strategy is also risky in case of unintended spillovers and technology plunders. Companies have to manage the coopetitive risk by implementing three principles of coopetition management: the separation principle, the integration principle, and the co-management principle.

The present study in this paper seeks to deal with the crucial topic of growth determinants for ICT start‐ups. In this emerging industry high firm birth rates go hand in hand with a great risk of failure and only one firm out of three survives the first three years.

The paper analyzes 220 start‐ups of the ICT service sector and verifies the influence of individual and organisational factors on growth.

The paper finds that human capital and working experience have no significant impact on the success of young ICT firms.

The paper shows that critical growth factors are mostly financing and customer related variables (firm size and capital at start‐up, customer structure, regional market orientation, etc.).

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the competitive strategies adopted by French wine producing firms in a crisis context.

First, two case studies have been developed through interviews with wine producers. They show that many strategies, corresponding to different levels of performance, are possible in a crisis industry. Second, an empirical study has been conducted applying a questionnaire survey addressed in June 2008 to wine producing firms from the Languedoc‐Roussillon region, south of France. Third, ordinal regression is operated in order to link financial performance and strategic choices of the investigated 160 respondent firms.

The findings indicated some interesting trends concerning wine producers' perception regarding the effect of the crisis and the strategies adopted by firms. The preferred strategic choice of the majority of investigated firms is the combination of “niche + differentiation” strategies. On the other hand, the strategic choice of firms is influenced by their experience; many less experienced firms prefer to adopt a differentiation strategy or a combination of the “niche + differentiation” strategies. Moreover, statistical analysis shows that no implementation of niche, differentiation or relational marketing lead toward decreasing turnover.

This research is focused only on wine producing firms from Languedoc‐Roussillon region in France. A second limitation is the fact that firms' performance was not systematically measured. The performance is evaluated mainly indirectly, considering that the investigated firms have survived the crisis.

Very few studies have been conducted on this particular topic.

The ICT sector in France is characterized by intense firm birth rates, but also by a high mortality. Five years after the start-up, only 38.7% of the firms survived, comparing to 51.0% in the middle high technology and 46.3% in non-innovative branches (Lasch, 2003a). The high growth potential of ICT firms is linked to specific problems, such as a higher risk of failure, a difficult financing, the lack of knowledge in firm management of new entrepreneurs, etc. (Pleschak, 1997). Mostly SMEs, young ICT firms are extremely fragile, so the present chapter proposes to discuss the crucial topic of survival and growth in innovation and knowledge-based sectors.