Performing Strategy: Analogical Reasoning as a Strategic Practice

Imagination Lab Foundation researchers communicate their findings to interested readers through the Working Paper publication series. This paper should be considered preliminary in nature and subject to subsequent revision. ABSTRACT Analogical reasoning refers to the successful transfer of structural similarities from a source to a target domain. In strategic management research, this concept has materialized in approaches such as strategic mapping. Yet, the concept and its application seem to have emphasized primarily the cognitive aspects of analogical reasoning. Bourdieu's concept of practice allows us to explore analogical reasoning in a more integral manner, i.e., by presenting embodied aspects of analogical reasoning as complementary, equally relevant for such processes. Thus, we conceptualize analogical reasoning as a practice of strategy and illustrate this concept with an empirical case.