The knowledge base of products: implications for organizational structures

Müge Özman Gossart ()
Additional contact information
Müge Özman Gossart: IMT-BS - MMS - Département Management, Marketing et Stratégie - TEM - Télécom Ecole de Management - IMT - Institut Mines-Télécom [Paris] - IMT-BS - Institut Mines-Télécom Business School - IMT - Institut Mines-Télécom [Paris], BETA - Bureau d'Économie Théorique et Appliquée - INRA - Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique - UNISTRA - Université de Strasbourg - UL - Université de Lorraine - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, TEM - Télécom Ecole de Management

Post-Print from HAL

Abstract: This paper investigates the impact of two dimensions of product knowledge bases on organizational structures. The first dimension, knowledge breadth, measures the complexity of a product. The second dimension, knowledge depth, measures the extent to which the knowledge embedded in the product can be used in different contexts. An agent-based simulation study is carried out to analyse the structural characteristics of organizations that emerge when self-interested agents select partners to combine their expertise and produce together. Agents learn from their interactions, which shapes their choice of partners in the future. The results reveal that multi-product companies with fewer inter-firm relationships emerge when products are complex and knowledge is highly reusable in different contexts. A network of specialized firms is a dominant organizational structure when products are complex and deep. The results are demonstrated through a brief case study of the history of the computer industry.

Keywords: Simulation; Organization structure; Firm formation; Knowledge; Networks (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010-08-01
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Published in Organization Studies, 2010, 31 (8), pp.1129-1154. ⟨10.1177/0170840610376148⟩

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-02446867

DOI: 10.1177/0170840610376148

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Post-Print from HAL
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CCSD ().