Analogical Reasoning and Knowledge Generation in Organization Theory
回顾并评价了组织理论中隐喻和类比在知识生成过程中的认知地位，识别出三种视角，并指出它们都假设隐喻语言与科学语言存在差距，进而用结构映射理论挑战这一假设。
This paper reviews and evaluates the cognitive status to which metaphors and analogies have been ascribed in the process of knowledge generation in organiza tion theory. Three perspectives are identified: metaphors as ways of thinking, metaphors as dispensable literary devices, and metaphors as potential ideological distortions. The main tenets of each one of them are reviewed and subsequently submitted to criticism. It is argued here that, despite their differing claims, the preceding perspectives converge on the assumption that there is a gap between metaphorical and scientific languages. The grounds for the existence of this gap are challenged in this paper, noting that the structure-mapping theory of analogy provides a methodology for developing metaphorical insights to yield scientific models and theories.