The proliferation of copycats poses a severe threat to brand manufacturers in the e-commerce era. Product innovation is a key strategy for brand manufacturers to enhance their market competitiveness and effectively combat copycats, which also may be beneficial or harmful to the environment. Yet,...

We find that the positive impact of a firm’ own innovations on its own growth is similar in more and less competitive industries. In contrast, the negative impact of rival firms’ innovations on a firm’s growth (creative destruction) is significantly stronger in less competitive industries,...