The field of study on coopetition has been given a growing emphasis in the recent years by researchers and business practice. Coopetition is a term integrating the notions of cooperation and competition happening as an intensive simultaneous process where actors seek to leverage the value created by other companies in their business network. These complex and paradoxical interactions are acknowledged as needing further research about the effects of coopetition and the different types of coopetitive interactions involved when firms coopete. The business network highlighted in the current study concerned the Swedish Cleantech industry. It offers an interesting ground as Sweden has been investing substantial amounts in environmental protection technologies. Moreover, SMEs in Sweden play an increasingly significant role in the national economy by their rapid technological development. Nonetheless, these SMEs battle to sustain opportunities and are facing many challenges such as lack of key resources, a limited market presence, and liabilities of newness. Thereby, collaboration is essential among Cleantech SMEs in order to overcome these challenges and sustain competitive advantages. This study sets out to fill this gap through the following objectives: by describing the cooperative and competitive activities happening of SMEs inside the Swedish Cleantech industry, by understanding how SMEs select their cooperative relationship with their competitors inside their business network, and by analyzing how coopetition can be implemented by SMEs as a strategy to develop sustainable competitive advantage. This research was conducted through a qualitative case study and semi-structured interviews of seven Swedish SMEs operating in the Cleantech industry. The findings underline that coopetition can be used as a matching strategy between the internal and the external environment of the firm. Further, before coopetition can lead to sustained competitive advantages, companies first need to develop societal advantages in the form of economic value, social value, and natural value.

Throughout the history, different types of businesses have reflected the zeitgeist of the specific era. Today, the globalization has led to the rise of the third wave of internationalization, which has increased the importance of emerging markets in the global business environment. An additional global trend that reflects today’s businesses is to fulfill social purposes along with making profit. The latter global trend entails the rise of the social sector in industrialized countries, including social enterprises. There is currently no universal definition of social enterprises as well as a lack of theoretical contribution on those; however, there is a lot of passion for the topic. In Sweden, social enterprises are associated with work integration social enterprises (WISEs), although other types of social enterprises exist, for example those finding opportunities in social issues in emerging markets. The purpose of this thesis is therefore to increase the holistic awareness for a wider concept of social enterprises in Sweden. To be able to increase this awareness, the aim is to examine how Swedish social enterprises turn social issues in emerging markets into business opportunities. It is further interesting to emphasize the challenges social enterprises are facing, as well as how they use their business models and strategies inorder to cope with the challenges. This study is carried out through a qualitative case-study of three Swedish social enterprises that are or were operating in emerging markets to some extent. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with one representative from each enterprise. The findings show that social enterprises have the ability to turn social issues into business opportunities. In addition, being able to balance making social impact with profit-making is one main challenge for Swedish social enterprises, especially in emerging markets as the enterprises’ core mission might be questioned regarding who their operations will benefit. The findings of this thesis have also shown that social enterprises commonly are taking the whole value-chain into account. Furthermore, as emerging markets are fast-changing and uncertain, it is difficult to plan ahead for what to come. Finally, as this thesis’ purpose states, it is thus crucial to increase the awareness and knowledge of these kinds of social enterprises since this will help them improving and increase their social impact.