The Impact of Imitation Strategy and R&D Resources on Incremental and Radical Innovation: Evidence from Chinese Manufacturing Firms

This study proposes and tests a theoretical framework that relates a firm’s imitation strategy and its interaction with R&D resources to incremental and radical innovation. The analysis of a panel dataset of 1381 Chinese manufacturing firms in the period 2008–2014 shows that imitation strategy is positively related to incremental innovation but has an inverted U-shaped relationship with radical innovation. More interestingly, R&D resources serve as a critical boundary condition of the imitation strategy — innovation link — they strengthen the link between imitation strategy and incremental innovation but weaken the link between imitation strategy and radical innovation.