Copycats: How Smart Companies Use Imitation to Gain a Strategic Edge

In the business world, imitation gets a bad rap. We see imitating firms as ?me too? players, forced to copy because they have nothing original to offer. We pity their fate: a life of picking up crumbs discarded by innovators striding a path paved with fame and profit.

In Copycats, Oded Shenkar challenges this viewpoint. He reveals how imitation?the exact or broad-brushed copying of an innovation?is as critical to prosperity as innovation.

Shenkar shows 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 they avoid costly errors by observing and learning from others? trials.

Copycats presents suggestions for making imitation a core element in your competitive strategy and pairing it powerfully with innovation, including:

· How to select the right model to imitate

· How to avoid oversimplification of a model

· Which imitation strategy to use

· How to prepare and execute an implementation plan

Engaging, practical, and rich in company examples, Copycats unveils how to add imitation to your competitive arsenal.

Oded Shenkar is the Ford Motor Company Chair in Global Business Management and Professor of Management at the Fisher College of Business, The Ohio State University, where he heads the international business area. A top scholar in international strategy, he is also a prolific author, and his work has been cited in numerous publications, including the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and The Economist.