S/M/72. Is a leadership or followership strategy the most profitable for research-intensive firms?

Research-intensive firms, such as Sony, IBM and Microsoft, all innovate in one way or another. However, some firms choose to be leaders and pioneers in their markets whilst others are content to follow, in some cases, simply imitating their competitors products. This paper examines these two strategies, leadership and followership, in great detail. It provides a wealth of theoretical and empirical evidence to illustrate the pros and cons of both strategies and provides brief, albeit famous case studies to help illustrate the arguments outlined. These include: a market leader, EMI, who failed to achieve dominance in the CAT scanner market; a follower, IBM, whose late entrance into the PC market secured market leadership in the wake Apples early success; and the classic case of Sony and Matsushita both fighting to establish the dominant ?standard in the VCR market.