Reconceptualizing Imitation: Implications for Dynamic Capabilities, Innovation, and Competitive Advantage
挑战了模仿容易、只有弱企业才模仿等传统假设，提出模仿可能成为动态能力和创新的关键来源，进而带来竞争优势，适合战略管理学者评估是否阅读原文。
Strategic imitation occurs when a firm purposefully attempts to reproduce, in whole or part, other firms’ products, processes, capabilities, technologies, structures, and/or decisions in its pursuit of competitive advantage. Imitation is a pervasive firm behavior, and the literature relating to imitation is growing rapidly. In the resource-based view, for example, imitation is core because it is assumed to undermine inter-firm performance heterogeneity and erode leaders’ competitive advantage. We argue that work on imitation is circumscribed by a core set of assumptions: imitation is easy, weak firms imitate, uncertainty promotes imitation, and there is only one imitation strategy. We review the origins and implications of these assumptions in the extant literature, and, more importantly, expose a set of emerging counter-assumptions. In light of these counter-assumptions, we propose foundations for a new conceptual model of imitation that focuses on evolutionary dynamics. We suggest that imitation may be a key source of dynamic capabilities and innovation, and in turn it gives rise to competitive advantage.