Flip through a fashion magazine. You’ll see celebrities in high-end designer outfits worth thousands of dollars. But at the bottom of the page, there will often be “Similar Styles” – clothing that looks almost identical to the celebrities’, but for a fraction of the cost.
Welcome to copycat manufacturing.
Successful products are often copied by lower-cost producers (copycats) piggybacking off the original’s creativity and success. It happens across industries – pharmaceuticals, fashion, and electronics to name a few. Ivey’s Assistant Professor Hubert Pun’s research looks at the copycat epidemic: what it is and how manufacturers can prevent it.
