Coopetition and Virtual Collaborations: Global Competitiveness in Research and Practice

Collaborations among tertiary institutions for research and other related activities have never been more important, particularly in this era of dynamic and rapid changes in technology. Performance of institutions have also become topical as more ranking organisations have been created to assess the integrity and competitiveness of tertiary institutions. While tertiary institutions were expected to embrace both competition and cooperation concurrently, it was vital to develop strategies that could enhance such collaborations. Many initiatives have been undertaken to address these gaps, but along came COVID-19, which forced businesses to operate under restrictive measures and mostly virtual. This chapter focusses on the Higher Education Partnerships for Sub-Saharan Africa (HEP SSA) and how it has strategised and achieved its goals through coopetition and virtual collaboration as a way of bridging the gap between academia and industry. The results have demonstrated that coopetition was not only a strategy for market share and protection but also led to the access of resources that were usually unavailable in solitary operation.