The Cross-Industry Innovation Process - Developing Break-Through Cross-Industry Innovation with Analogical Thinking
Series
Innovationsmanagement in Wissenschaft und Praxis
ISBN
978-3-938363-37-9
Type
book section
Date Issued
2009
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Harland, Peter E.
Abstract
In this article we investigate the approach of analogical thinking for product innovation. We collected data of projects from four engineering firms where analogical thinking was successfully applied for breakthrough Cross-Industry Innovations. This type of innova-tion is characterized by applying knowledge and technologies from other industries in the own industry's context. Results show that abstracting the problem by in-depth tech-nical and contextual analysis is pivotal when searching for analogical solutions. Fur-thermore, chances for the identification of highly novel analogous solutions are in-creased if the problem is abstracted to the level of its structural similarities to other set-tings. We also found that the identification of structural similarities is supported when firms not only rely on the cognitive abilities of the individual but employ an active search based on abstract search terms. Based on these insights, we propose a process model for the development of Cross-Industry Innovations by means of analogical thinking.
Language
English
Keywords
Cross-Industry Innovation
Analogical Thinking
HSG Classification
contribution to practical use / society
Refereed
No
Book title
Immer eine Idee voraus. Wie innovative Unternehmen Kreativität systematisch nutzen
Publisher
Harland media
Publisher place
Lichtenberg
Start page
479
End page
497
Pages
19
Subject(s)
Division(s)
Eprints ID
56308
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Name
Buchbeitrag Horst Geschka - Cross-Industry Innovation.pdf
Size
138.25 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
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