Sammendrag
The objective of this research is to explore the nature and role of analogies as objects for
knowledge transfer in cross-industry collaborations. A case study of an organization seeking
cross-industry innovation (CII) across two industry sectors was conducted, and the empirical
data were analyzed qualitatively. We found that analogies used as knowledge mediation objects
could be classi¯ed as explanatory or inventive, each expressed as linguistic or visual representations.
Explanatory analogical objects help build prior knowledge of a foreign industry
domain, thus easing later use of inventive analogical objects to identify how knowledge from one
industry can be applied in another industry for innovation purposes. In these roles, the analogies
serve as boundary objects. Both explanatory and inventive analogies can also serve as
epistemic objects, motivating for further collaborative engagement. Visual representations of
analogies help bridge the abstract with the concrete, thereby easing the process of creating
analogies. They also enable nonverbal communication, thus helping bypass language barriers
between knowledge domains. The reported research expands current research literature on
knowledge mediation objects to the context of CII and provides added detailed understanding
of the use of analogies in CII.
Keywords: Analogies; knowledge transfer; cross-industry innovation; boundary objects; epistemic
objects.
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