Learning Through Inaccurate Replication

Replicating a successful template or best practice across time (temporal replication) or across a number of different economic settings (spatial replication) is an important strategy for organizational growth and performance improvement. In this paper, we use an NK landscape model to examine how organizations may innovate and adapt to their environment through inaccurate replication. We identify conditions under which inaccurate replication can result in higher long-run performance than accurate replication. We also uncover the specific mechanisms through which replication errors may affect organizational performance. In that, our study also sheds a new light on how organizations may learn from (replication) errors.