Identifying the Ways to Successful Imitation Strategy in Sport Entrepreneurship Companies (Case Study: Tanin Peik Sabalan Company, BETA Brand)

The aim of this study was to identify the ways to successful imitation strategy in sport entrepreneurship companies which was conducted in two steps. Firstly, the ways were identified by Delphi technique and then a model was developed by interpretive structural modeling. So, 6 experts were selected from sport management professors by purposive sampling method and the Delphi rounds continued until a theoretical agreement was reached. In the second step, 15 experts from the Beta brand sales agents were selected by purposive sampling method and paired comparison questionnaire were distributed among them to develop the model. Data were analyzed by SPSS22 software in the first step and the calculations of the second step were conducted with the MATLAB2014 software. Delphi method identified ‘imitating the leading brand name’, ‘imitating the leading brand appearance’, ‘imitating the leading brand identity’, ‘imitating the leading brand image’, ‘promoting the perceived value of the imitation brand’, ‘promoting national production support’, ‘imitation brand store’ and ‘the success of the imitation strategy’ as the ways and interpretive structural modeling developed a model in 4 levels for identified ways. Based on the results, the imitation strategy can promote the image and perceived value of imitation and provide the success of sport entrepreneurs in the market by creating an identity similar to leading brands.