首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
考研
Every year Les Wexner, the owner of Victoria’s Secret, a lingerie(女士内衣)retailer, takes a month off to travel the world looking f
Every year Les Wexner, the owner of Victoria’s Secret, a lingerie(女士内衣)retailer, takes a month off to travel the world looking f
admin
2014-10-24
74
问题
Every year Les Wexner, the owner of Victoria’s Secret, a lingerie(女士内衣)retailer, takes a month off to travel the world looking for other companies’ ideas to adopt. Mr. Wexner’s philosophy is that business should celebrate imitation.
That is almost a heresy. Businesses are told to innovate or die. Imitators are cast as the bad guys. But in the real world, companies copy and succeed. The iPod was not the first digital-music player; nor was the iPhone the first smartphone or the iPad the first tablet. Apple imitated others’ products but made them far more appealing.
The pace and intensity of legal imitation has quickened in recent years, argues Oded Shenkar, a management professor at Ohio State University, in a provocative book, " Copycats: How Smart Companies Use Imitation to Gain a Strategic Edge".
History shows that imitators often end up winners. Who now remembers Chux, the first disposable nappies, whose thunder was stolen by Pampers? Ray Kroc, who built McDonald’s, copied White Castle, inventor of the fast-food burger joint. Even Playboy magazine was just an imitator, noted Ted Levitt, one of the earliest management gurus to acknowledge the role of imitation. Copying is not only far commoner than innovation in business, wrote Levitt in the 1960s, but a surer route to growth and profits. According to "Copycats", studies show that imitators do at least as well and often better from any new product than innovators do. Followers have lower research-and-development costs, and less risk of failure because the product has already been market-tested. A study by Peter Golder and Gerard Tellis, "Pioneer Advantage; Marketing Logic or Marketing Legend" , found that innovators captured only 7% of the market for their product over time.
Firms seldom admit to being copycats. But some businesspeople are willing to talk about the limitations of innovation. Kevin Rollins, a former chief executive of Dell, a computer-maker, asked, " If innovation is such a competitive weapon, why doesn’t it translate into profitability?" But most remain obsessed with their own inventions. Copying is taboo. Praise and promotion do not go to employees who borrow from other firms.
As a result, firms pay insufficient attention to the art of copying. Levitt examined a group of companies whose sales depended on regularly launching new products. None of them, he found, had either a formal or informal policy on how to respond to other firms’ innovations. So they were often far too slow to imitate rivals’ successes, and missed out on profits. Not much has changed since Levitt’s day. Though copying is fairly common, lots of companies fail to do it effectively. American firms in particular are too obsessed with innovation, argues Mr. Shenkar. By contrast, Asian companies—such as Panasonic, whose former parent, Matsushita, was nicknamed maneshita denki, "electronics that have been copied"—have excelled at legal imitation.
Excessive copying, of course, could be bad for society as a whole. Joseph Schumpeter worried that if innovators could not get enough reward from new products because imitators were taking so much of the profit, they would spend less on developing them. But that is not the immediate concern of corporations. Copying is here to stay; businesses may as well get good at it.
选项
答案
C
解析
约瑟夫·熊彼特(Joseph Schumpeter)这个名字在文章最后一段出现。“Joseph Schumpeterworried that if innovators could not get enough reward from new products because imitators were takingso much of the profit,they would spend less on developing them.”熊彼特担心如果仿造者夺走了大部分利润,发明者无法从新产品中得到足够的回报,他们便不再费尽心思去进行研发。因此对应的选项应该是[C]discourage innovators’enthusiasm for innovation。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/23K4777K
0
考研英语一
相关试题推荐
Whichofthefollowingtitlesbestsummarizesthecontentofthetext?Accordingtotheauthor,thedebatehasspecialsignific
Themajorityofpeople,aboutnineoutoften,areright-handed.(1)_____untilrecently,peoplewhowereleft-handedwereconsi
Themajorityofpeople,aboutnineoutoften,areright-handed.(1)_____untilrecently,peoplewhowereleft-handedwereconsi
Themajorityofpeople,aboutnineoutoften,areright-handed.(1)_____untilrecently,peoplewhowereleft-handedwereconsi
Themajorityofpeople,aboutnineoutoften,areright-handed.(1)_____untilrecently,peoplewhowereleft-handedwereconsi
Businesscardsareusuallyusedto______Businesscardsarelikelytohaveappeared
Itisnotoftenrealizedthatwomen【C1】______ahighplaceinsouthernEuropeansocietiesinthe10thand11thcenturies.Asa【C2
Itisnotoftenrealizedthatwomen【C1】______ahighplaceinsouthernEuropeansocietiesinthe10thand11thcenturies.Asa【C2
TheRivalryofCoca-ColaandPepsi-ColaInmorethanacenturyofhand-to-handcombatinshops,supermarketaisles,restaura
ImmigrantStudentsinTheirStudiesonMadeandFemaleDifferencesWhenitcomestoschooling,theHerreraboysarenomatch
随机试题
国际劳工组织的执行机构是()
英美法的主要渊源是()
下述哪些检查适用于不育症病人()
公司向股东和社会公众提供虚假的或者隐瞒重要事实的财务会计报告,严重损害股东或者其他人利益的,对其直接负责的主管人员或其他直接责任人员,应该( )。
班轮运输的运费应包括()。
(2016年)2015年3月4日,甲公司为履行与乙公司的货物买卖合同,签发一张商业汇票交付乙公司。汇票收款人为乙公司,由Q银行承兑,到期日为9月4日。7月9日,乙公司财务人员不慎将该汇票丢失,于当日同时申请挂失止付和公示催告。7月10日,法院通知Q银行停止
教育科学研究属于()
向级别与本机关相同的有关主管部门请求批准某事项应使用()。
患者,男性,23岁。发现右下颌骨逐渐膨大8年,近来增大速度减慢。检查见下颌骨体部弥散性膨大,但以颊侧更明显,质硬。X线片示右下颌骨体部呈磨砂玻璃样,与骨皮质相移行。术后标本病理检查发现纤维组织代替正常骨组织,其中有较多的纤细小梁。诊断为()。
冯.诺伊曼(VonNeumann)在总结ENIAC的研制过程和制定EDVAC计算机方案时,提出两点改进意见______。
最新回复
(
0
)