When the design of an artifact is quot;modularized,quot; the elements of the design are split up and assigned to modules according to a formal architecture or plan. Some of the modules are quot;hidden,quot; meaning that design decisions in those modules do not affect decisions in other modules;...

In quot;Managing in the Age of Modularity,quot; which was written in June 1997 and appeared in the Harvard Business Review, we proposed that a new technological phenomenon, the modular design of complex computer systems, caused the emergence of a large modular cluster of firms and markets in the...

This paper uses a cognitive theory of firms and organizations, with a focus on learning and innovation. Here, cognition is a wide notion, including value judgments and corresponding feelings and emotions. This paper focuses on the relation between that cognitive theory and Penrose's theory of...

An extensive theoretical literature examines technological competition and, in particular, whether leaders maintain their standing. These models, however, have received little empirical support. I examine innovation in the disk drive industry, an environment particularly conducive to identifying...

This is the first of a series of papers that investigates the institutional forms that can arise and be sustained by a quot;technology of design.quot; This paper sets up our quot;model worldquot; in terms of its technology, actors and larger context. In subsequent papers, we will define three...

Every artifact has a design, and thus designs are an important class of information goods. In this paper, we establish the scope of the design valuation methodology based on real options, which we developed in Design Rules, Volume 1, The Power of Modularity (MIT Press, 2000). We argue that if an...

This paper examines the impact of the conglomerate form on the scale and novelty of corporate Ramp;D activity. I exploit a quasi-experiment involving failed mergers to generate exogenous variation in acquisition outcomes of target firms. A difference-in-difference estimation reveals that,...

The last twenty years have witnessed the rise of disaggregated quot;clustersquot; or quot;networksquot; of firms. In these clusters the activities of Ramp;D, product design, production, logistics and selling may be split up among hundreds or even thousands of firms. Different firms will design...