Imitation ought to be as respectable as Innovation !!! Coz it is a lot more efficient. Infact, Innovation can build on Imitation.

• Imitation is being masked by being called as "Open Innovation"! It is the same :)
• Reverse Engineering = Imitation
• New term ---> Creative Imitation
• New Term ---> Copycat Innovation
• Imitation should NOT have a stigma associated with it and Innovation should not have too much respectability attached to it at all times.

To sum up, Innovation is cool. But Innovation is expensive. Imitation is cool. But imitation by itself may not offer competitive advantages. The solution lies in building Innovation over Imitation. Perhaps it can be this:

Step 1 ---> Imitate.

Step 2 ---> Innovate based upon what you have already imitated.

Steve jobs himself once said "Good artists copy. Great artists steal!".