"Fight alone" to "win–win cooperation": a quantum stag hunt game model for analyzing cooperative R&D between enterprises

Cooperative research and development (R&D) has emerged as a highly effective strategy for enterprises to enhance their R&D efficiency and ease resource bottlenecks. However, these collaborations between enterprises are often difficult because of many variables. Given this, we use the quantum game to investigate the incentive mechanism for forming cooperative R&D strategic alliances between enterprises. First, we established a stag hunt game model based on cooperative R&D and independent R&D, then expanded the classical strategy to the quantum strategy space, discussed the strategic characteristics of whether to consider state entanglement, and finally conducted a case study to verify the effectiveness of the model. The results show that in the non-entangled scenario or non-quantum scenario; it is difficult to achieve the Pareto optimal result that both sides are in full cooperation because the full-effort one needs to bear the risk of betrayal by the on-effort one. However, in a maximally entangled quantum game, the risk incurred by the defector is borne by himself rather than the cooperator, so both parties will adopt a complete cooperative R&D strategy to achieve a win–win situation. Based on these findings, we establish three incentive mechanisms: information sharing, performance evaluation, and responsibility constraint, which provide theoretical guidance for the formation and stability of an enterprise cooperative R&D strategic alliance. Furthermore, we can extend our research to other fields, including the issues of multilateral cooperation between major powers.