Whom should a leader imitate? Using rivalry-based imitation to manage strategic risk in changing environments
Author(s)
Sharapov, Dmitry
Ross, Jan-Michael
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
We study the performance implications of dynamic environments for a leader’s rivalry-based imitation efforts in a setting with multiple rivals. We disentangle competitive interactions from environmental changes to show that a leader’s simple rules to either imitate the closest rival in terms of attributes (her neighbor) or the closest rival in terms of rank (her challenger) can help to maintain the performance gap to her competitors. Using a computational model and an empirical test, we find that environmental changes alter the tradeoffs between imitation accuracy and the responsiveness to threats from distant rivals. Consequently, when environmental changes are infrequent and minor, neighbor imitation is more effective in maintaining the lead, whereas challenger imitation prevails as environmental changes become more frequent and substantial.
Date Issued
2023-01
Date Acceptance
2019-11-13
Citation
Strategic Management Journal, 2023, 44 (1), pp.311-342
ISSN
0143-2095
Publisher
Wiley
Start Page
311
End Page
342
Journal / Book Title
Strategic Management Journal
Volume
44
Issue
1
Copyright Statement
© 2019 The Authors. Strategic Management Journal published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.
Identifier
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/smj.3120
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2019-12-08