Quantifying the emergence of modularity trap Case of Hard Disc Drive industry

Imane Bouamama and Tomoatsu Shibata

No 71, DSSR Discussion Papers from Graduate School of Economics and Management, Tohoku University

Abstract: With increasingly competitive markets and technological advances driving the world towards a "converging commonality", adopting "modularity" seems to be more and more appealing for companies and businesses wishing to adapt to various market conditions and to benefit from decentralized innovations. However, the decision to adopt a modular product architecture often comes with a need to deeply analyze the current market state and to predict the future technological shifts. Thus, minimizing the risk of falling into the "organizational traps" that comes in as a reason to a "misalignment" between the product architecture and the organizational structure of a firm. This paper proposes a way to quantify the modularity trap, using the `coupling index' as a measure to the interdependencies and inter-connections between product's components, and applying the hypothesis to the Hard Disc Drive industry.

Pages: 19 pages
Date: 2017-09
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:toh:dssraa:71

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