Strategic Imitation

“Strategic imitation” refers to the deliberate process of replicating other firms’ products, processes, technologies, or strategic decisions to enhance a firm’s competitive position. While the strategic management literature often refers simply to “imitation,” the underlying arguments imply it is inherently “strategic” because firms do not imitate indiscriminately; rather, they selectively adopt elements that align with their competitive objectives, industry dynamics, and resource constraints. By observing competitors, firms engage in strategic imitation (hereafter referred to as “imitation”), leveraging existing market advantages, mitigating risks associated with innovation, and positioning themselves more effectively within their competitive landscape. This article is organized into several sections. First, it discusses the main literature reviews in the field of strategic management published on imitation. Next, it explores the different objects and targets of imitation, identifying what aspects of a rival’s strategy are most commonly imitated (“what” is imitated) and which firms are most frequently targeted (“who” is imitated). The discussion then moves to different imitation strategies, including imitation as a binary choice (i.e., yes/no), imitation breadth (i.e., the extent to which a firm imitates a wide range, as opposed to a narrow range, of rivals’ strategies, proxying a firm’s scope of imitation effort), imitation depth (i.e., the extent to which the focal imitator strategy overlaps with the target’s), and the speed at which firms imitate others (i.e., the time it takes for a focal firm to replicate a rival’s decision). Theories of imitation are then explored in detail, with a focus on two major streams: information-based theories, which emphasize how firms use information to guide imitation decisions, and rivalry-based theories, which highlight the competitive dynamics driving imitation. Antecedents of imitation are also examined, distinguishing between firm-level antecedents, namely those that refer to the firm characteristics, such as resources and capabilities, and environmental-level antecedents, namely those related to the firm’s external environment, like the industry dynamics and characteristics of the targets and objects that are imitated. It follows an examination of the performance outcomes of imitation, distinguishing between studies that have provided evidence for a positive as opposed to a negative effect of imitation on the firm’s competitive advantage. Finally, the article concludes with an overview of how imitation is measured, providing empirical tools such as similarity indexes and time-to-imitation metrics.