Beyond the Mirroring Hypothesis: Product Modularity and Interorganizational Relations in the Air Conditioning Industry

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Cabigiosu, Anna; Camuffo, Arnaldo
• 署名单位: University of Padua; Bocconi University; Bocconi University
• 刊物名称: ORGANIZATION SCIENCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1047-7039
• DOI: 10.1287/orsc.1110.0655
• 发表日期: 2012
• 页码: 686-703
• 关键词: loose coupling; modularity; product architecture; organizational architecture; supplier relations; complementarities

摘要

This study explores whether, to what extent, and under which conditions modular products are associated with modular organizations (the mirroring hypothesis). We analyze the product and organizational architectures of three firms in the air conditioning industry through an original data set of 100 components and supply relationships. Applying a variety of regression methods, we show that, under the condition of product architecture stability at the component level, supplier relations for loosely coupled components are characterized by less information sharing, which implies that the degree of coupling of product components varies directly with the degree of coupling of organizations (the mirroring hypothesis). Also, the performance of supply relationships depends on the amount of buyer supplier information sharing but not on the degree of component modularity, which supports the relational view and confirms that product modularity does not have unambiguous effects on organizational performance. Moreover, the degree of component modularity negatively moderates the impact of buyer supplier information sharing on supplier-relationship performance, which confirms that component modularity works as an ex ante, embedded substitute for high-powered interorganizational integration mechanisms. Finally, contingent on firms' strategies, organizational structures, and capabilities, we argue that at the firm level, higher product modularity may be associated either with less information sharing with suppliers, which implies that the mirroring effect might hold also at the firm level, or with more information sharing with suppliers, which implies that there may be increasing returns to modularity in design efforts because of interorganizational integration (the complementarity hypothesis).