Corporate Imitation

The article focused on why business firms imitate each other and based the arguments on two perspectives. The first being some firms are assumed to be bastions of information, thus the firms are imitated based on the assumption that whatever they are doing must be as a result of a well-informed thought process. The second view-point is that imitation arises out of the need to cancel or reduce the competitive gap by imitating what the market leaders are doing. The article then focuses on the corporate and economic negative implications of imitation, though acknowledgement is given that there are positives derivatives of imitation. The article sought to amplify the role a toxi-turbulent business environment in the creation of strategic drifts, strategic collisions and strategic obsolescence which then gives rise and corporate justification to imitation.   Whereas the information based theories and the rivalry based theories argue that imitation is intentional, the Socio-ecological theories postulates that mimic isomorphism is as a result of a reaction to the same environmental conditions that would then apparently appear as imitation. Hence the reaction of two or more organisations to environment stimuli may be pseudo imitation simply because a similar stimuli is bound to produce a similar response.

The article is two-pronged in its analysis in that it analyses the issue of imitation from both an economic kaleidoscope as well as from a socio-ecological perspective.  From an economical perspective, the analysis of imitation goes beyond the visible aspects but delves deeper into the salient aspects of an organization. In instances of tacit or complex behaviour, the process of imitation will be impeded. For example in the Zimbabwean Mobile Money industry Ecocash is generally believed to be the market leader by revenue as well as transactions. Though Telecash, One Money and Getcash have tried to imitate Ecocash the outcomes are not synonymous with those of Ecocash. As aptly captured by the article some attempts to imitate may be fatal as is now the case of Getcash which has not operated viably since inception as they could not imitate to totality the business model of Ecocash (the operational market leader for the purpose of this article) and is now being disposed of by Brainworks Capital Pvt Ltd. Investments would have been heavily but narrowly focused such that profitability in never achieved due to the failure to analyse  the in-depth aspects of an organization to be imitated.

Whereas information based theories and rivalry based theories argue that organisations imitate out of information and rivalry, socio-ecological theories postulate that organisation prefer experimental learning to imitation. However, experimental learning is not conducive in a highly dynamic business environment like that of Zimbabwe where adaptation has to be imminent in order to survive in the toxi-turbulent economic environment. If a business organisation invests in experimental learning chances are high though not in totality that by the time experimental learning is complete the prevailing environmental conditions will be different from those that prevailed prior to the experimental learning.

Vecchiato (2012) argues that due to the dynamic business environment, strategic foresight becomes problematic and he advocates for reactive strategies. These reactive strategies require an imminent reaction to the prevailing environment. These reactive strategies substantiate the need for mimic strategies as it takes a comparatively shorter period of time to mimic as compared to experimental learning and research and development.

This article is of vast essence to organisational analysis as it offers an in-depth analysis into imitation for both information purposes and competitive rivalry. An important lesson to be learnt is the need to create a highly competent, dynamic and complex workforce that is difficult to imitate such that an organisation is able to derive strategic competitive advantage from its Human Resources strategy. The need for a stringent strategical confidentiality policy was also brought to the fore by the article as it was revealed through information based theories that corporate information might provide the basis for competitor firms to imitate the organisation and diminish competitive advantage.

In light of the above review one may conclude that then article provides an insight into why and how organisations mimic other organisations. It also provides an appreciation of the challenges associated with imitation especially when it involves complex systems and behaviours and where information is not readily available. The article though not explicit it helps in the shaping of Human Resources strategy such that the probability of an organisation being imitated to totality is reduced.

Referencing

Vecchiato, R. (2012). Strategic foresight and environmental uncertainty: a research agenda. VOL. 14 NO. 5 2012, pp. 387-400, Q Emerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 1463-6689