Abstract We collected relative literature of imitative entrepreneurship published in domestic core journals from the year 2001, and we adopted the grounded theory research method. Our results show that the imitative entrepreneurship could exhibit a kind of demonstration effect. In the role of leading enterprises of demonstration, imitative entrepreneurs observe the facts that the leading enterprises through certain channels and under the influence of demonstration events implement entrepreneurship activities. Imitative entrepreneurship is often due to the pursuit of low cost, seeking legitimacy, its innovation ability insufficiency, the limited resources endowment and so on, to carry out the imitative entrepreneurial activity. Imitative entrepreneurial activities lead to the diffusion of technical knowledge, thus have independent intellectual property rights, which is promoting innovation. At the same time, imitating the pioneering can reduce entrepreneurial risks, form the advantage of backwardness and obtain competitive advantages.
