Networks and innovation in a modular system: Lessons from the microcomputer and stereo component industries

Langlois, Richard N.; Robertson, Paul L.

doi:10.1016/0048-7333(92)90030-8

Cited by 628 publications

(412 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…Indeed, non-adaptive subparts within an adaptive whole are usually taken as a sure sign of a hierarchical architecture (Axelrod and Cohen, 1999). More recent research into modular design (Langlois and Robertson, 1992;Schilling, 2000) illustrates the same point: designers select the overall best technological solution for the problem at hand, but every solution has more and less optimal features. As a result, the raw material for future exaptations is everywhere.…”

Section: Reasons For Exaptationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The economic implications of exaptation

Dew

Sarasvathy

Venkataraman

2004

Journal of Evolutionary Economics

171

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Abstract. Accounts of economic change recognize that markets create selective pressures for the adaptation of technologies in the direction of customer needs and production efficiencies. However, non-adaptational bases for technological change are rarely highlighted, despite their pervasiveness in the history of technical and economic change. In this paper the concept of exaptation -a feature co-opted for its present role from some other origin -is proposed as a characteristic element of technological change, and an important mechanism by which new markets for products and services are created by entrepreneurs. Exaptation is a missing but central concept linking the evolution of technology with the entrepreneurial creation of new markets and the concept of Knightian uncertainty.

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Section: Reasons For Exaptationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The economic implications of exaptation

Dew

Sarasvathy

Venkataraman

2004

Journal of Evolutionary Economics

171

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“…The importance of business-related skills associated with an activity will be negatively associated with the extent of outsourcing. Langlois and Robertson (1992) suggest that independent activities (not dependent on other activities for their execution, with few and easily identifiable links with the other activities of the firm) are more likely to be outsourced than interdependent -systemic -activities, because they can be executed in a self-contained way. They found support for the role of interdependence in the micro-computer and stereo components and the automotive industries.…”

Section: Transaction-level Characteristicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…If activities are independent, outsourcing one of them does not create coordination problems and does not affect the efficiency of the other activities (Langlois and Robertson, 1995). Outsourcing an interdependent activity would create such problems and would limit the firm's innovative capacity, because it would not control all the interdependent components (Langlois and Robertson, 1992). In IS, Bahli and Rivard (2005) are among the few who refer to task interdependence as a risk factor in an outsourcing decision.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A multi-level investigation of information technology outsourcing

Aubert

Houde

Patry

et al. 2012

The Journal of Strategic Information Systems

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This study proposes and tests a model of the information technology (IT) outsourcing decision that includes antecedents of both transaction costs and production costs. Production costs show the most robust influence on governance. Skills required to execute the activities, interdependence between the activities, and firm-level characteristics -uncertainty and knowledge intensity -are the main explanatory variables of the decision. Transaction-level uncertainty is the only transaction cost variable found to influence the decision. This study proposes and tests a model of the information technology (IT) outsourcing decision that includes antecedents of both transaction costs and production costs. Production costs show the most robust influence on governance. Skills required to execute the activities, interdependence between the activities, and firm-level characteristics -uncertainty and knowledge intensity -are the main explanatory variables of the decision. Transaction-level uncertainty is the only transaction cost variable found to influence the decision.

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“…The evolution of many industries over the past century has been characterized by two related phenomena in buyer-supplier relationships: increasingly modular products and a shift to more flexible, disaggregated supply chains (Langlois and Robertson 1992, Zenger and Hesterly 1997, Schilling and Steensma 2001. Components that exhibit low modularity require customization to fit in a customer's product and, indeed, may also require adaptation of the customer's product to fit the component's technology.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Rather than being locked into preexisting relationships, a buyer can choose the best supplier at any point (Hoetker 2006, Ulrich 1995. Because a buyer can consider a larger number of suppliers, it can consider the outcomes of multiple experiments in how to construct each component, which increases the expected value of the approach that the buyer selects (Ethiraj andLevinthal 2004, Langlois andRobertson 1992).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Modularity and the Impact of Buyer–Supplier Relationships on the Survival of Suppliers

2007

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M odularity in product design and flexible supply chains is increasingly common in buyer-supplier relationships. Although the benefits of supply chain flexibility and component modularity for end-product manufacturers are accepted, little is known about their impact on suppliers. We advance the literature on modularity by exploring how three aspects of a supplier's relationships with its customers affect the supplier's survival: duration of buyer-supplier relationships, autonomy from customers, and links to prominent buyers. We compared the effects of these aspects of buyer-supplier relationships for low-and high-modularity components. Using data on U.S. carburetor and clutch manufacturers from 1918 to 1942, we found that suppliers of high-modularity components benefited more from autonomy provided by potential customers, whereas suppliers of low-modularity components benefited more from ties to higher status customers. Both benefited from autonomy generated by existing customers. Thus, relationships that require trust and extensive sets of interfirm routines, as do those for low-modularity components, led to both greater relationship benefits and greater constraints.

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Networks and innovation in a modular system: Lessons from the microcomputer and stereo component industries

Cited by 628 publications

References 8 publications

The economic implications of exaptation

The economic implications of exaptation

A multi-level investigation of information technology outsourcing

Modularity and the Impact of Buyer–Supplier Relationships on the Survival of Suppliers

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