REPLICATION - A Force of Nature or Work of Art ?

Replication “refers to the creation and operation of a large number of similar outlets that deliver a product or perform a service” (Winter and Szulanski, 2001). Undertaking a replication strategy ideally entails identifying the recipe that proved to be successful, and apply it over and over again without another company being able to identify and imitate it. Within a resourcebased framing replication may be seen as a matter of finding an Arrow type, non-rivalrous resource, possible to use repeatedly without loss of value. Replication processes in business settings have been conceptualised using a biology metaphor as main inspiration. In the paper we identify yet another replication metaphor, originating in art, and suggest that the combined use of biology and art metaphors is a way to generate a more comprehensive framework for understanding replication practices.