Organizing Modular Production

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Matouschek, Niko; Powell, Michael; Reich, Bryony
• 署名单位: Northwestern University; University of Cambridge
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF POLITICAL ECONOMY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-3808
• DOI: 10.1086/733424
• 发表日期: 2025
• 页码: 986-1046
• 关键词: community structure; INFORMATION; networks; COMMUNICATION; INNOVATION; MODEL

摘要

Products are increasingly made by assembling separately produced modules. Motivated by the notion that a firm's production function drives its organization, we explore how modular production shapes a firm's communication structure. Decisions are partitioned into modules and require closer coordination within modules than across. Each agent knows the state his decision must be adapted to. The principal decides whom each agent tells about his state, given that each communication link comes at a cost. We show that optimal communication networks follow a simple threshold rule and exhibit the threshold property. We discuss comparative statics, applications, and empirical implications.