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...

A central tenet of work in the Carnegie School tradition is the notion of “learning-by-doing”— organizations learn over time through feedback. In this paper we argue that the learning-by-doing account overlooks the fact that an organization's decision-making structure is often...

Problemistic search theory, with its roots in the Carnegie School tradition, describes a behaviorally plausible process by which firms learn from performance feedback. A firm's recognition of performance below aspirations leads to search for a solution to the problem, resulting in change...

Imitation is a central construct in strategy theory because it is assumed to diminish inter-firm performance heterogeneity within an industry. We revisit this assumption, which is premised on the logic that imitated practices act directly to make the imitator more similar to its target. This...

Extant theory holds that new entrants' pre-entry experience is an important asset that enhances their post-entry performance. While the logic is compelling, empirical findings have been inconsistent. We argue that this gap results, in part, because the empirical literature tends to confound two...

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...

A central idea in the behavioral theory of the firm is that when an organization’s performance falls below aspirations, a search is triggered. While this aspiration-based model has dominated the empirical literature, it is only one of two Carnegie School accounts of how firms use performance...