Adaptation on rugged landscapes
Management Science
Survival-Enhancing Learning in the Manhattan Hotel Industry, 1898-1980
Management Science
How Decision Makers Evaluate Alternatives and the Influence of Complexity
Management Science
Organizational Learning: Creating, Retaining, and Transferring Knowledge
Organizational Learning: Creating, Retaining, and Transferring Knowledge
Reproducing Knowledge: Replication Without Imitation at Moderate Complexity
Organization Science
Entrepreneurs, Contracts, and the Failure of Young Firms
Management Science
Imitation of Complex Strategies
Management Science
Reproducing Knowledge: Inaccurate Replication and Failure in Franchise Organizations
Organization Science
An extended research framework for the simulation era
Proceedings of the Emerging M&S Applications in Industry & Academia / Modeling and Humanities Symposium
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It is a common and frequently implicit assumption in the literature on knowledge transfer and organizational learning that imitating practices from high-performing firms has a positive impact on the imitating firm. Although a large body of research has identified obstacles to successful imitation, not much is known about what breadth of imitation is most effective. In this paper, we use a simulation model to explore how context and firm similarity, interdependence among practices, context and firm similarity, and time horizon interact in nontrivial ways to determine the payoffs that arise from different breadths of imitation. The results of the model allow us to qualify and refine predictions of the extant literature on imitation. In particular, the results shed light on the conditions under which increases in imitation breadth, and hence investments that facilitate the faithful copying of more practices, are valuable. In addition, the results of the model highlight that imitation can serve two different functions---mimicking high performers, and generating search by dislodging a firm from its current set of practices---each requiring different organizational routines for its successful implementation.