The Limits to Specialization: Problem Solving and Coordination in ‘Modular Networks’

Organization Studies - Tập 26 Số 12 - Trang 1885-1907 - 2005
Stefano Brusoni1
1Bocconi University (CESPRI & CRORA) and Silvio Tronchetti-Provera Foundation, Italy

Tóm tắt

This paper builds upon current research into the organizational implications of ‘modularity’. Advocates of modularity argue that the ‘invisible hand’ of markets is reaching activities previously controlled through the visible hand of hierarchies. This paper argues that there are cognitive limits to the extent of division of labour: what kinds of problems firms solve, and how they solve them, set limits to the extent of division of labour, irrespective of the extent of the market. This paper analyses the cognitive limits to the division of labour, relying on an in-depth case study of engineering design activities. On this basis, it explains why coordinating increasingly specialized bodies of knowledge, and increasingly distributed learning processes, requires the presence of knowledge-integrating firms even in the presence of modular products. Such firms, relying on their wide in-house scientific and technological capabilities, have the ‘authority’ to identify, propose and implement solutions to complex problems. In so doing, they coordinate networks of suppliers of both components and specialized competencies.

Từ khóa


Tài liệu tham khảo

Acha, Virginia, 2004, ‘Technology frames: The art of perspective and interpretation in strategy’

10.1287/orsc.10.2.162

10.1016/0048-7333(94)01003-X

10.1023/A:1009993430964

Arrow, Kenneth J., 1974, The Limits of Organization

10.7551/mitpress/2366.001.0001

10.1177/0170840603024004004

10.1093/icc/10.1.179

10.2307/3094825

10.1177/017084068600700104

Chesbrough, Henry, 2000, Knowledge and the firm

Coriat, Benjamin, 1998, The dynamic firm: The role of technology, strategy, organization and Regime

10.1142/S1363919697000139

10.1287/orsc.10.5.622

10.1016/j.respol.2003.04.001

10.5465/amr.1989.4308385

10.1287/orsc.14.3.331.15166

Foss, Kirsten, 2003, ‘Authority in the context of distributed knowledge’

10.1142/S1363919698000195

Gero, John S., 1990, AI Magazine, 11, 26

10.1080/00343400220122052

10.1023/A:1009977627870

Grandori, Anna, 2002, Journal of Management and Governance, 6, 252

10.2307/41165908

Gunnarson, Sven , and Raymond E. Levitt 1982 ‘Is a building construction project a hierarchy or a market?’ Seventh INTERNET Congress, Copenhagen, Denmark. September: 521–529.

Landau, Ralph, 1992, Technology and the wealth of nations

10.1017/CBO9780511896613.007

10.1016/S0167-2681(02)00056-2

10.1093/icc/12.2.351

Lazaric, Nathalie, 2004, Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, 7

10.4324/9780203459096

Marples, David L., 1961, IEEE Transactions of Engineering Management, 8, 55

10.1093/cje/23.2.127

10.1177/0170840600215004

10.1093/cje/28.4.505

Penrose, Edith T., 1959, The theory of the growth of the firm

10.1016/S0048-7333(96)00900-6

10.1093/0199263221.001.0001

Rosenberg, Nathan, 1998, General purpose technology and economic growth, 167

10.1002/smj.4250171107

10.2307/3069394

Simon, Herbert A., 1951, Models of Bounded Rationality

Simon, Herbert A., 1996, The sciences of the artificial

10.1093/icc/11.3.451

10.1287/orsc.13.3.321.2779

10.1002/smj.4250171104

10.1016/0048-7333(94)00775-3

Weber, Max, 1961, Complex organizations: A sociological reader, 6

Weick, Karl, 1995, Sensemaking in organizations

10.1177/0170840600215002

Thông tin
Thông tin xuất bản

Organization Studies

Tập 26 Số 12

1885-1907

Thông tin tác giả