Innovation through imitation

Title: Copycats: how smart companies use imitation to gain a strategic edge
Oded Shenkar, (2010) "Copycats: how smart companies use imitation to gain a strategic edge", Strategic Direction, Vol. 26 Iss: 10, pp.3 - 5

Findings – In the business world, imitation gets a bad rap. We see imitating firms as “me too” players, forced to play catchup because they have nothing original to offer. In Copycats, Oded Shenkar challenges this viewpoint. He reveals how imitation is as critical to prosperity as innovation and how savvy imitators generate huge profits. They save not only on R&D costs but also on marketing and advertising investments made by first movers, and avoid costly errors by observing and learning from others' trials.

My notes: This paper presents one of those ideas that are very unlikely to spread in certain worlds like business and design. People in these communities don't want to hear/see evidence that a great component of innovation is, in fact, imitation. Shenkar's ideas are unlikely to be acclaimed, but they are the kind of ideas that reveal a great deal about innovation and how we study it.