This study analyzes the processes whereby organizations develop radical innovations in response to environmental transformations. It explores the changes in organizational structures, practices and business strategies entailed by the implementation of such innovations. From the literature on...

Modularity has recently become an important concept in economics and management science alike (Ulrich 1995; Baldwin and Clark 2000). However, it is not always clear what is meant by modularity as formal treatments are rare. The aim of this paper is threefold. First, we want to provide a rigorous...

This article analyzes the technical and organizational dynamics on which the strategies of the European aircraft manufacturer are founded. The point of view developed is that refocusing on architect-integrator activities, increasing modular decomposition of the process of building airplanes and...

In the last two decades, the electronics industry has evolved from a vertically integrated industry to a vertically segmented one. This transformation has often been attributed to the modularization of electronic products. In this paper, we argue that the degree of modularity is an active choice...

The purpose of this paper is to present factual elements concerning the rise (decline) of French mega-suppliers. The study will focus on France’s three main mega-suppliers, all actors that have had a stake in carmakers’ modularisation strategies: Faurecia, Plastic Omnium and Valeo. Section 1...

This article questions a terminology that is frequently used to describe automotive supply chains’ industrial architecture. Since vertical disintegration became a trend in the 1980s, this architecture has been represented using the image of the pyramid. Implicitly, authors have had the image...

This paper describes how entrepreneurial firms can use superior architectural knowledge to open up a technical system to gain strategic advantage. The strategy involves, first, identifying "bottlenecks" in the existing system, and then creating a new open architecture that isolates the...