Imitation is ubiquitous, yet the comparative efficacy of imitation strategies is poorly understood. A popular imitation strategy, sometimes called benchmarking, “mixes-and-matches” the practices common to leading firms. Using computational models, we compare benchmarking to the...

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...

Research in the strategy literature that highlights the role of imitation has tended to focus primarily on its detrimental effects on the performance of imitated firms. Developing the notion of vicarious experimentation, we examine how innovators can learn from being imitated. Specifically, we...