Imitation, Incremental Innovation and Climb Down: A Strategy for Survival and Growth of New Ventures

Abstract

Productivity, profit and growth of enterprise have been closely linked to its ability to innovate successfully. Imitation is seen as an inferior and 'non-entrepreneurial' act. The accelerating technical change, however, has made innovation increasingly difficult for small and nascent business. For the large corporation raised costs and complexities of technical change make innovation an effective instrument to keep out small enterprise with competitive pretensions. Notwithstanding the high profile success of a few start-ups' direct innovative confrontations with mature business, an average entrepreneur has virtually no chance in this battle of unequal. The very spirit of entrepreneurship embodied in ever sprouting small and nascent enterprise is endangered by this trend. We believe, an entry facilitated by imitation and subsequent consolidation through incremental innovation targeted at the lower part of the value chain, left untouched by most large corporations, offer better chance of survival and growth to new ventures.