Organizational Imitation as an Engine of Innovation

组织经常将其他组织视为他们所做事情的榜样。最近的研究表明，组织有时会模仿最常见的做法（频率模仿），模仿大型或知名组织的做法（特征模仿），或者模仿那些似乎有良好结果的做法（结果模仿）。这一领域的大多数重要工作都假设，如果许多组织都在模仿，那么随着时间的推移，它们都将趋于相似。本研究探讨了一种重要的对比可能性，即模仿可以导致实践中的创新和复杂性，而不是相似性。本文采用归纳、定性分析的方法，对来自三个行业的40家制造企业和7个国家的14所大学的两年研究样本的细粒度访谈数据进行了分析。我们将研究(1)组织是否使用多个模仿规则，（并产生新的实践组合）(2)他们是否以模式的方式组合不同的规则（在实践组合中产生系统的模式）以及(3)模仿过程对(a)组织层面的创新(b)整个组织群体（组织人口）层面的创新有什么影响。该研究将促进对新的实践束如何在组织群体中产生的理解，从而有助于组织替代学习和群体层面学习的学术研究。它对从业者也有价值。例如，现代公司经常以其他组织为基准。本研究将提出在哪些条件下，采用其他组织的实践更有可能为模仿组织和所属行业带来意想不到的问题或优势。

Organizations often look to other organizations as models for what they do. Recent research has shown organizations sometimes imitate the most common practices ( frequency imitation), the practices of large or prestigious organizations (trait imitation), or practices that appear to have a good outcome (outcome imitation). Most important work in this area has assumed that if many organizations imitate, they will all tend to look alike over time. This research explores the important contrasting possibility that imitation can lead to innovation and complexity in practices, rather than similarity. The paper uses inductive, qualitative analysis of fine grained interview data from a two year study of 40 manufacturing firms in three industries, and a sample of 14 universities in seven countries. We will examine (1) whether organizations use more than one imitation rule, (and produce new mixes of practices) (2) whether they combine different rules in patterned ways (producing systematic patterns in mixes of practices) and (3) what impact the imitation processes have on (a) innovation at the organizational level (b) innovation at the level of whole groups of organizations (organizational populations). The research will contribute to scholarly research on vicarious learning by organizations and population level learning by advancing understanding of how new bundles of practices arise in populations of organizations. It will have value to practitioners as well. For example, contemporary firms often 'benchmark' other organizations. This research will suggest conditions under which adopting practices form other organizations will be more likely to create unintended problems or advantages for both the imitating organization and the industry to which belongs.