getanswer
Chipotle offers a good example for a discussion of barriers to imitation. Read the following article: “Inside Chipotle’s Kitchen: What’s Really Handmade?†(The Wall Street Journal, February 24, 2015). Note the stages starting with identification of resources and capabilities, then VRIO analysis, and finally barriers to imitation. It is legal to take apart publicly available products and services and try to replicate them and even develop work-arounds for relevant patents. But is it ethical? If a key capability protected by patents or trademarks in your firm is being reverse-engineered by the competition, what are your options for a response? Also, how do you evaluate Google’s decision to move its servers to Hong Kong? For Google’s values, see Values.