Why do leaders help followers follow?

Imitation by followers has been perceived to erode a leader's competitive advantage and, thus, it is essential for a leader to ensure that imitations are difficult and imperfect. Some industry cases, however, illustrate a puzzling phenomenon whereby leaders help, rather than hinder, followers' imitation efforts. Drawing on relevant literature and theories, we suggest three rationales behind such strategic behaviour, which we term 'imitation promotion,' by a leading firm: (1) to share costs and jointly penetrate the market by driving followers to develop complementary products or services; (2) to make followers follow its technological trajectory, limit their differentiated R & D efforts, and minimise substitution threats and (3) to easily learn from followers' imitative experimentation and use it to inform its next innovative endeavours. We develop and articulate these three theoretical rationales with illustrative cases.