20986: How Analogies Evolve in Matching Capabilities and Opportunities (session 26057)

In this inductive study, we take a dynamic perspective on analogies to investigate the collective process of analogy change in giving rise to an exploratory business unit. Our empirical setting of Fischer—a sports equipment producer from the Austrian Alps that entered the aircraft industry based on the initial analogy “aircraft wings are like our skis”—allows for tracking changes to the analogy over time (1981–1985). The results of our case study using both retrospective and remnant sources reveal that analogies are not static but change in the pursuit of an exploratory opportunity. We develop a process model that explains how analogies are amplified, symmetrized, and trimmed to allow for more adequate collective, cognitive representations of the environment. Our model also shows how these changes to the analogy affect collective actions and possibly allows moving from a constructed relatedness based on an analogy to a factual relatedness that iteratively materializes in the development of new capabilities. Our study contributes to the growing cognitive view in strategy by introducing analogy change as an iterative process to alter not only cognitive (i.e., managerial mindsets) but also physical elements (i.e., resources and capabilities) of strategy.

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