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Brokerage and balance: Creating an effective organizational interface for product modularization in multinational R&D

Accepted version
Peer-reviewed

Type

Article

Change log

Authors

Liang, X 
Shi, Y 

Abstract

Despite numerous studies on modularity, the modularization processes have received less attention. In the global context, product modularity can be leveraged to satisfy heterogeneous market requirements across countries with low costs. Through a longitudinal case study of HomeTech, we examined how multinational R&D created an effective organizational interface to facilitate recombination of its organizational units, and thus product modularization. We found that three elements of an organizational interface were established through a process composed of three phases in HomeTech R&D: regional concentration, establishing a module pool, and creating architecture leader posts. We also found that the three elements exerted the balancing effect and the brokerage effect so that the organizational interface was effective in facilitating recombination of organizational units. We contribute to the literature through showing how organizational modularity can affect product modularity within a firm. We also reveal the critical role of architecture leaders in product modularization. Finally, we enrich the organizational interface concept by highlighting the combination of elements.

Description

Keywords

Modularization, Organizational interface, New product development, Multinational corporations, Mirroring hypothesis

Journal Title

Research Policy

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

0048-7333
1873-7625

Volume Title

47

Publisher

Elsevier BV
Sponsorship
No