模仿型新产品开发过程及对新产品绩效的影响机制：中、美、印的跨国研究

Legitimate or legal new product imitation is a widely used new product development practice. A well known example is Apple's creation of the iPad, which followed the development of tablet devices by competitors years prior. But how do firms go about doing imitative new product development well and reap the rewards of this strategy? This research project aims at answering such focal questions. First, regarding imitative new product development (INPD) as a learning process, this project discusses the major stages of INPD by relying on the process-oriented perspective of absorptive capacity theory and context theory in linguistics. Second, this project proposes a new concept of innovative imitativeness to reflect the similarity and originality between the imitative new product and the competitive product in terms of product functions, product form, marketing tactics, and marketing strategies. Finally, this project compares the stages of INPD across China, US, and India to glean the international "best practices" in INPD, examines how national culture influences firms to benfit from INPD. Both qualitative and quatitative methods will be used to examine the above conceptual framework. Semi-structured depth interviews will be conducted with new product development and innovation professionals in the selected countries to guide the development and refinement of the research framework. Online surveys through LinkedIn professional groups will be conducted in the selected countries to test the framework. Moreover, due to data availability, secondary data (data from the Product Launch Analytics and SymphonyIRI) will be used to test the relationship between innovative imitativeness and imitative product's sales performance in the U.S. This project makes several contributions to research and practice. Chief among the theoretical contributions is that INPD is conceptualized and empiricized as a formal construct for the first time. By doing so, this project enriches absorptive capacity theory and the new product development literature by bringing knowledge contexts in. Additionally, a new construct- - innovative imitativeness- - is developed to remedy the technological and innovation biases in the current literature. In terms of practice, managers are provided through the developed model a roadmap to do INPD well. By being one of the first studies to examine legitimate INPD, this project helps to validate and illuminate imitation as a viable new product strategy. In sum, this project helps answer how firms should do INPD and how they can benefit from doing so.

模仿型新产品开发是一种被国内外企业普遍采用而理论研究却严重不足的现象，本项目致力于通过中、美、印的跨国研究来探讨模仿型新产品开发过程及对新产品绩效的影响机制。首先，依托吸收能力理论和语言学中的情境理论，提出一个两阶段的模仿型新产品开发过程理论模型。其次，依据拓展的产品认识，提出创新模仿性概念以弥补现有研究中的技术偏见和创新偏见。第三，结合国家文化的"洋葱模型"和"海洋模型"，探讨中、美、印三国企业在模仿型新产品开发过程中的异同，析出模仿型新产品开发活动的跨国"最佳实践"，并研究国家文化是如何影响企业从模仿型新产品开发活动中获益。最后，结合定性研究、一手调研数据和二手商业数据库的定量研究来检验假设和理论模型。开展本项目研究不仅可以拓展吸收能力理论、国家文化和新产品开发领域的研究，还有助于回答：企业应该如何从事模仿以及如何才能从模仿中获益等现实问题。

模仿是一种普遍存在的商业行为。案例研究结果表明，创新所创造的价值的约98%实际上最终被模仿者所获得。本研究以模仿型新产品开发过程为研究对象，经由理论分析和实践总结，提出了一个模仿型新产品开发的两阶段模型，并开展了有关模仿型新产品的跨国实证研究，最后本研究探讨了模仿与创新的驱动因素，强调了中国特色的情景因素的作用。主要的主要研究结果和结论包括：（1）模仿型新产品开发过程通常包括情景化竞争产品和再情景化竞争产品两个阶段；（2）模仿型新产品开发过程的不同阶段会受到模仿企业固有因素的影响，这些因素主要和其注意、动机和能力等相关，并且这些不同阶段会对新产品的绩效产生相异的影响；（3）在中国情景下，面子消费是驱动消费者购买模仿型产品的主要动力；（4）由于制度差异，美国和印度在与模仿型新产品开发相关的新技术采用方面存在显著差异；（5）制度因素（比如政府支持）和环境因素是影响企业模仿和创新的重要力量。. 依据研究问题的性质和研究内容的具体要求，本项目主要依靠案例研究、在线问卷调研、消费者行为实验和购置二手商业数据库等方式，获得了研究所需的实证数据，并采用方差分析、多元回归分析和结构方程模型等适宜的手段对这些数据进行了规范分析，检验了研究假设，得出了比较可靠的研究结论。结合深入的理论分析和规范的实证检验，本项目研究的主要理论贡献在于：（1）揭示了模仿型新产品开发过程的不同阶段，并且实证验证了这些不同阶段的前因和后果；（2）揭示了模仿型新产品开发过程、企业对相关技术的采用和消费者购买模仿型新产品的意愿都存在国别之上的异质性；（3）虽然政府提供的制度利益在刺激创新过程中扮演着重要的角色，但是政府制度支持也是一把“双刃剑”，可能会挤出社会对创新的投入。另外，本研究也为企业如何开展模仿型新产品开发、政府如何刺激模仿和创新以及消费者的模仿型产品购买决策提供了有益的建议。