Competitive Responses, Competitors’ Strategic Orientations, and Imitated Strategy Types: Evidence from the U. S. Restaurant Industry

Competitive Responses, Competitors’ Strategic Orientations, and Imitated Strategy Types: Evidence from the U. S. Restaurant Industry

Restaurant firms often make choices between innovation and imitation. To increase the value of their businesses, they develop a new strategy or follow what rivals do. Many restaurants are small businesses that are more flexible and quick in response to changing condition than large businesses, but more vulnerable to changes in the external environment and often not capable to experiment with a new strategy. Therefore, restaurants often choose an imitation strategy over an innovation strategy. In this context, this study aims to explore imitators’ responses to innovator’s actions. It examines the predictable effects of both a company’s strategic orientations and the imitated strategy types on a company’s tendency to imitate, as well as investigates imitation time lag in the U.S. restaurant industry. Using a scenario-based survey approach, ANOVA, and regression analysis, results show that the types of an emerging strategy determine the competitor’s entry into the market and its response speed. Results suggest that competitive responses vary according to the competitor’s strategic orientations, as well as explain the usefulness of particular strategies during their lifetimes, since imitation and competition impede innovation.