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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the approach of analogical thinking for product innovation. We collected data on projects from four engineering firms where analogical thinking was successfully applied for the development of breakthrough innovations. Results show that abstracting the problem by in-depth technical and contextual analysis is pivotal when searching for analogical solutions. Furthermore, the chances of identifying highly novel analogous solutions are increased if the problem is abstracted to the level of its structural similarities to other settings. We also found that the identification of structural similarities is supported when firms not only rely on the cognitive abilities of the individual but also employ an active search based on abstract search terms. Based on these insights, we propose a process model for the development of product innovations by means of analogical thinking.

Research on dual business models has highlighted the challenge for firms when they compete with different business models in a market. Drawing from ambidexterity literature, we investigate the question of how firms integrate or separate business models at the level of value chain activities, which constitute the core operational activities within each business model. We employ a qualitative research approach based on 11 case studies of Western firms that implemented a low‐cost business model in parallel to their premium business model in emerging markets. We find that firms may become ambidextrous in their business models by means of domain separation. In doing so, firms may separate value chain activities to address different additional customer segments in emerging markets. This study contributes to the emerging topic of dual business models and provides the ground for future research on ambidexterity in a global context.

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