IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/jindec/v66y2018i4p816-865.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Sincerest Form of Flattery? Product Innovation and Imitation in the European Automobile Industry

Author

Listed:
  • Jeff Thurk

Abstract

I study the impact of imitation on the returns to technological innovation when products are differentiated. Using data that capture Volkswagen’s introduction of the TDI diesel engine and the technology’s imitation by rival European firms, I estimate a discrete choice, oligopoly model of horizontally differentiated products. Imitation benefited consumers by increasing product variety and reducing prices but also limited Volkswagen to 14% of potential profits from the TDI. Volkswagen’s ability to differentiate its diesel models made the TDI a worthwhile investment nonetheless. This indicates firms can mitigate imitation risk by bundling easy‐to‐copy technological advancements with difficult‐to‐copy product characteristics including brand.

Suggested Citation

  • Jeff Thurk, 2018. "Sincerest Form of Flattery? Product Innovation and Imitation in the European Automobile Industry," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 66(4), pages 816-865, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jindec:v:66:y:2018:i:4:p:816-865
    DOI: 10.1111/joie.12187
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/joie.12187
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/joie.12187?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Gorkem Bostanci & Pinar Yildirim & Kinshuk Jerath, 2023. "Negative Advertising and Competitive Positioning," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 69(4), pages 2361-2382, April.
    2. Erdem Dogukan Yilmaz & Ivana Naumovska & Milan Miric, 2023. "Does imitation increase or decrease demand for an original product? Understanding the opposing effects of discovery and substitution," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(3), pages 639-671, March.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:jindec:v:66:y:2018:i:4:p:816-865. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0022-1821 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.