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The purpose of this paper is to explore how external pressures, internal capability and transaction attributes of logistics outsourcing synergically influence the extent of asset-based and non-asset-based logistics outsourcing.

Based on the data surveyed from 250 manufacturing companies in China, this study employed fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to deduce multiple configurations for logistics outsourcing decisions.

The results suggest that asset-based logistics outsourcing is primarily driven by external imitation pressures or internal demands for logistics technologies, while non-asset-based logistics outsourcing is mainly driven by the demands for external management-based logistics services. Asset specificity plays a positive role in promoting both asset-based and non-asset-based logistics outsourcing. The requirement for third-party logistics (3PL) management capability depends on the outsourcing types and outsourcing causes.

This study provides guidance to practitioners for them to make outsourcing decisions. It suggests that asset-based logistics outsourcing is more appropriate when there are high external imitation pressures or more internal logistics demands, while non-asset-based logistics outsourcing should be used only when a firm needs management-based logistics services. Besides, 3PL users are suggested to outsource their logistics when their 3PL providers are required to make specific investments. In addition, managers should carefully evaluate firms’ capabilities in managing outsourcing relationships.

Previous studies largely ignored the interaction effects of a set of factors on logistics outsourcing decisions, and to date, little research empirically examined how outsourcing is driven in terms of different types of outsourcing. Drawing on the institutional theory, dynamic capability view, and transaction cost theory and overarching under the complexity theory, this study examines how institutional, organizational and transactional factors interplay with each other to influence different types of logistics outsourcing (i.e. asset based and non-asset based). Methodologically, the configural analysis (i.e. fsQCA) is applied to explore complex causal configurations that drive logistics outsourcing.

In this study, the authors examine acquirers’ selection of legal advisors for mergers and acquisitions (M&A) transactions. The authors first confirm the importance of their own prior experience and imitation within this context. Then, the authors propose and find that firms with less experience in performing M&A deals place more emphasis on imitating others while firms with more experience with a particular legal advisor focus less on others’ experience with this advisor. The authors further find that when they imitate, firms selectively, rather than broadly, imitate others by focusing on their industry or state peers. The authors present corroborating evidence for these hypotheses through analyzing a matched sample of acquirer – legal advisor pairs developed from an initial dataset of 29,398 domestic and cross-border acquisitions performed by US firms between 2000 and 2010.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of affective appraisal dimensions on the use of two ecologically rational, social heuristics: imitate the majority (IMH) and imitate the best (IBH) during an entrepreneurial strategic decision-making process (ESDM).

The authors test the hypotheses in a controlled field experiment, on a final sample of 98 entrepreneurs.

The study shows that entrepreneurs experiencing affect described by certainty appraisal display a preference for relying on IMH, but not on IBH. Moreover, entrepreneurs who experience unpleasant affect tend to rely more on IMH, rather than IBH. The reverse is true for the entrepreneurs who experience positive affect. Finally, the use of IMH is most likely under unpleasant and certain affect, while the use of IBH is most likely under pleasant and certain affect.

The main contribution of this study is that it provides initial support for the impact of affective appraisal dimensions on the use of ecologically rational heuristics (i.e. heuristics that save important resources, but bring beneficial results) during an ESDM process.

The phenomenon of imitation has attracted immense attention in studies of big companies, but it has been largely neglected in the immigrant entrepreneurship research thus far. The purpose of this paper is to address that gap by proposing a theoretical framework for studying immigrant entrepreneurship imitation decisions.

The framework is based on a review of relevant literature covering the issue of imitation within three perspectives: institutional, heuristics of judgement and organisational learning. We validate the framework by juxtaposing it with existing studies on immigrant entrepreneurship, where imitation practices were directly and indirectly referred to. The framework is also initially validated with data from three qualitative studies performed by the authors.

The literature-derived framework consists of three major building blocks (i.e. causes, target and content of imitation) while immigrant-entrepreneurship specificity (ethnic groups and clusters, ethnic identity, generation, and resources) constitutes the context of the framework. The authors formulate 12 propositions on which the framework is based. The specific character of immigrant entrepreneurs' imitation decision is discussed, and differences in that regard between immigrant entrepreneurs and established local businesses are highlighted.

A more diversified sample and quantitative studies are needed to further verify the proposed framework and propositions.

The framework is intended to expedite future research on immigrant entrepreneurs' imitative decisions and facilitate better-adjusted public policy to support immigrant entrepreneurs.

This paper drives attention to a widely used, yet understudied phenomenon of imitation, provides an analytical framework for the study of imitation in immigrant entrepreneurship, provides a preliminary validation of the framework and contributes to a better understanding of immigrant behaviour.

In this study the aim is to analyze multiple decisions in mergers and acquisitions (M&As) strategy to verify whether isomorphism appears in these decisions when a firm imitates others and to determine under what conditions the link between imitation and the degree of similarity in M&As is weakened.

With a sample of 4,881 completed M&As in the financial service industry, the authors adopt the generalized multivariate regression model to test the hypothesized effects of the independent variables on the degree of similarity in M&As.

Support is found for the mimetic isomorphism argument. Furthermore, firm experience and local market segmentation weaken the positive relationship between imitation and the degree of similarity in M&As.

This study enhances the understanding of mimetic isomorphism by not only verifying the relationship between imitation and isomorphism, but also integrating the role of organizational active agency (firm experience) and the extent to which local market competitors affect imitation and isomorphism within the industry as a whole.

Most previous research assumes that the outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) decisions of multinational corporations (MNCs) are made independently of the actions or characteristics of their peers. Therefore, the important influence of peer effects on the OFDI strategy is often neglected. The purpose of this paper is to identify two broad categories of peer effects, i.e. learning-based and profit-driven imitations and examine the important influence of peer effects on MNCs’ internationalization strategy.

Using Chinese manufacturing firms as the empirical sample, the authors employ an econometric method (logit regression) to test the relationship between peer effects and an internationalization strategy.

Learning-based and profit-driven imitations are positively associated with a focal MNC’s OFDI decision. Policy uncertainty also positively moderates the relationship between peer effects and the OFDI strategy. Moreover, both peer effects are amplified when a firm is equipped with a dense export network.

The study offers researchers and practitioners a detailed view of interorganizational imitation behavior in terms of an internationalization strategy.

This study explores whether the peer effects of internationalization exist within the subdivision industry of enterprises in the engineering field and assesses the imitation paths for the peer engineering enterprises within the industry when implementing internationalization strategies under the peer effects.

This study collected secondary and objective data on 38 Chinese engineering enterprises from the Engineering News-Record's list of the top 250 international contractors between 2013 and 2021. It employed a regression analysis to test the research hypotheses.

The findings reveal that in the process of internationalization: (1) peer effects exist within the subdivision industry of internationalization of engineering enterprises; (2) engineering enterprises within the same industry and region imitate each other; (3) non-state-owned engineering enterprises imitate state-owned engineering enterprises within the same industry; and (4) in the industry follower–leader imitation process, industry followers imitate leaders according to enterprise size and return on assets.

The results contribute to a better understanding of how peer effects influence engineering enterprises' internationalization process. This study also proposes imitation paths based on the law of imitation to provide recommendations for engineering enterprises' better development in the international market.

The authors attempt to answer the basic questions: How is imitation tied to innovation? This question is addressed in the context of China's innovation system in the 2000s where Chinese industrial firms simultaneously implement innovation and imitation strategies in their new product developments.

The authors first build on lattice theory and supermodularity theory to provide a rigorous and careful mathematical proof. The authors further conduct the empirical analyses using an original data on Chinese manufacturing firms' innovation and imitation strategies in the development of new products in 2002.

This article reveals the complementarity relation between imitation and innovation strategies and identifies external knowledge search as the boundary condition that influences the extent to which two strategies reinforce each other.

The findings of the imitation-innovation complementarity suggest that imitation is not only an indispensable strategy independent of innovation, but also is vital to the effectiveness of innovation itself.

The imitation-innovation complementarity finding provides some evidence for the contention that Chinese latecomers exploit the synergies of imitation and innovation, transforming themselves from imitators to innovators and vibrant competitors in the global market (Wu et al., 2016) and, as a result, national innovation system has evolved from a state-sponsored imitation program to the imitation-innovation mixture.

In contrast to earlier innovation studies in which innovation and imitation are unrelated, this study reveals that imitation complements innovation, and the extent of Chinese firms' external knowledge search affects the complementary relationship between imitation and innovation. These findings add important insights to the innovation management literature and contribute empirical evidence to the interplay of innovation and imitation enhancing national innovation system.

The purpose of this paper is to describe a method of estimating the likelihood that a person with particular characteristics will imitate a particular new behaviour (i.e. the use of an innovation). This estimation can be used to provide a new form of forecast for the likely market demand for an innovation.

This method, termed imitation analysis, is based on imitation theories from the behavioural sciences and is applied in two recent case studies in The Netherlands: broadcast TV on mobile phones and a mobile friend‐network service.

These cases illustrate how: the market segments with the highest potential can be identified; marketing communication can be focused on specific issues important for each segment (e.g. based on the highest imitation potential); product design can be improved (by highlighting the characteristics with the most room for improving the imitation potential); and market demand can be modelled (the overall chance of imitation occurring).

Management implications for the two services, as well as the usefulness of imitation analysis in forecasting studies, are discussed.

The paper expands on original work published in this journal in 2005, showing the value of the approach in real‐world settings.

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether isomorphism and mimetic, coercive, and normative mechanisms apply to cross‐border mergers and acquisitions initiated by Chinese firms. Unlike prior studies, the paper aims to identify multiple bases for imitation of firm strategy and verify: whether the degree of conformity in the multiple bases of firm strategy increases over time; and how mimetic, coercive, and normative pressures affect the degree of conformity.

Hypotheses are tested on a sample of 1,004 cross‐border mergers and acquisitions (M&As) initiated by 671 Chinese firms from 1985 to 2006. The four decisions for imitation in cross‐border M&As are based on: the product relatedness between the acquiring and target firms; the location of the target firm; the ownership structure; and the size of the deal.

The results show that not all decisions on cross‐border M&As react to forces of conformity in the same way. Overtime, the overall degree of conformity in cross‐border M&As decreases. Factors that significantly affect the degree of conformity include the experiences of failure other firms in the industry, regulatory changes, and membership or entry into the World Trade Organization.

This paper re‐examines the concept of isomorphism and explores the conditions under which firms from emergent markets conform to others' decisions.