组织模块化设计:基本原理与理论架构

模块化技术的出现,推动着组织进行相应的模块化,同时也为组织设计带来了新的理念。本文基于已有研究,绘制了由结构构建、制度设计和价值创新构成的组织模块化设计价值创新原理图,从系统角度对组织模块化设计原理的SSV范式进行了详细分析,认为价值创新是模块化组织特有的结构和制度安排整合系统效应的结果。在此基础上,从契约结构、组织结构、组织流程、组织职权四个角度阐述了组织模块化设计的理论架构,这有助于组织模块化设计的进一步研究和实践。     

When the mirror gets misted up: Modularity and technological change

This study investigates how component technological change affects the relationship between product modularity and organizational modularity (the across‐firm mirroring hypothesis). Studying the air conditioning industry, we show that the across‐firm mirroring hypothesis does not hold for technologically dynamic components and the associated supply relationships. In this case, the mirror gets “misted up” with buyers and suppliers having recourse to information sharing even in the presence of highly modular components. Our study contributes to the debate on the organizational implications of modularity and its ramifications for the theory of the firm. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

大型企业的模块化:内容、意义与方法

本文认为，业务、能力要素和组织结构的模块化是今天大型企业组织的变革之道。本文对大型企业组织形态的演进历史进行了考察，分析了大型企业组织模块化内容，探索了模块化组织和模块化簇群的意义，认为模块化对我国大型企业集团的发展与变革是有借鉴意义的。     

Assessing performance of utilizing organizational modularity to manage supply chains: Evidence in the US manufacturing sector

Recent competition and customization have motivated manufacturers to institute modular organizations to manage supply chains. Proclaimed as a paradigm shift, organizational modularity manifests agility and flexibility to diversify product offerings, utilize production capacity, and allocate network capital and assets. Whereas studies have conceptualized the impacts of modular organizations, large-scale research that examines modularity's impacts on performance are lacking. The study assesses the impacts of organizational modularity in the US manufacturing sector. A set of hypotheses proposes that higher level of modularity is associated with higher efficiency and profitability. I found modularity to negatively affect product specialization and positively impact capacity utilization, ROI and ROA. The findings help to determine the robustness of utilizing the modularity for complex supply chain coordination.     

Do modular products lead to modular organizations?

The tacit assumption that increased product modularity is associated with advantageous increases in organizational modularity underlies much of the literature on modularity. Previous empirical investigations of this assumption, few in number, have faced numerous confounding factors and generated conflicting results. I build a causal model for the relationship between product and organizational modularity, which I test using a distinctive empirical setting that controls for confounding factors present in previous studies. I find support for only part of the assumed relationship, showing that modularity is a more multifaceted concept than previously recognized. In particular, increased product modularity enhances reconfigurability of organizations more quickly than it allows firms to move activities out of hierarchy. The paper contributes to the emerging stream of research that focuses on the previously underappreciated costs of designing and maintaining a modular organization. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Product and Process Modularity's Effects on Manufacturing Agility and Firm Growth Performance

Modularity in product design has been hailed as a way to speed new product development (NPD), to reduce NPD cost, and to enhance customization possibilities for consumers. Modularity in process design may speed new product manufacturing setup times, reduce costs, and enhance the profitability of the lower volumes that customization often entails. However, empirical evidence is scarce that either product or process modularity—individually, jointly, or sequentially—actually produce these or other proposed benefits (e.g., performance growth). This study builds on general modular systems theory (GMST) by examining the theoretical relationship between product and process modularity and the effects of each on firm growth performance. Using structural equation modeling, partial versus complete mediation by manufacturing agility is also scrutinized. In one pair of models, product modularity and process modularity are separate direct antecedents to manufacturing agility, which is modeled to affect firm growth performance; in a second pair of models, product and process modularity are related antecedents to manufacturing agility, with product modularity preceding process modularity. Results from the best‐fitting model show that product modularity directly and positively affects process modularity, manufacturing agility, and firm growth performance. Process modularity was unrelated to manufacturing agility, and neither process modularity nor manufacturing agility predicted growth performance. Consistent with GMST, the study provides empirical evidence of the power of one element of a modular system to orchestrate a fit between a firm's product and manufacturing strategies and to directly drive system performance. Thus, modularity in product design is revealed as the key to understanding GMST effects concerning how changes in one system generate changes in other systems.     

基于模块化网络组织的价值流动与创新

模块化网络组织是在价值模块化的基础上形成的一种新型价值创造的组织形式,其内部价值流动过程包括价值的创造、转移、实现和分配四个阶段。引导价值的合理有序流动,既是模块化网络组织治理的重要方面,也是形成网络协同效应、增强模块化网络组织竞争优势的重要途径。模块化网络组织能够通过知识创新实现价值创新,其价值创新机制具有边际收益递增性、顾客参与性和非均衡性等特性。网络组织内部成员企业以自身核心能力要素参与模块化分工和模块化网络组织的价值创新,能够形成网络组织整体竞争优势,共同创造和分享网络租金。     

Performance feedback and middle managers’ divergent strategic behavior: The roles of social comparisons and organizational identification

Research Summary: What drives middle managers to search for new strategic initiatives and champion them to top management? This behavior—labeled divergent strategic behavior—spawns emergent strategies and thereby provides one of the essential ingredients of strategic renewal. We conceptualize divergent strategic behavior as a response to performance feedback. Data from 123 senior middle managers overseeing 21 multi‐country organizations (MCOs) of a Fortune 500 firm point to social performance comparisons rather than historical comparisons in driving divergent strategic behavior. Moreover, managers’ organizational identification affects whether they attend to organizational‐ or individual‐level feedback. These results contribute to research on performance aspirations and strategy process by providing a multilevel, multidimensional framework of performance aspirations in middle management driven strategic renewal. Managerial Summary: Middle managers are essential actors in strategic renewal. Their unique positions offer insights into operations alongside knowledge of strategy. In contrast to typical assessments of managerial performance with reference to a prior year, this research shows that performance comparisons relative to peers and other organizational units better motivate managers’ divergent strategic behavior. Our results also show that managers who identify with the firm are more attentive to organizational rather than individual performance discrepancies. Thus, our study unveils an important approach for organizations aiming to spark strategic renewal.     

Scope versus speed: Team diversity,leader experience,and patenting outcomes for firms

Research Summary: How does the organization of patenting activity affect a firm's patenting outcomes? We investigate how the composition of patenting teams relates to both the scope of their patent applications and the speed with which their patents are approved, by examining the main effects of team members’ intra‐organizational diversity (based on affiliations with formal organizational units and informal organizational communities) and the moderating effects of team leader experience. We test our moderated mediation model in a sample of 121 teams that filed patents in a Fortune 50 company's India R&D center between 2005 and 2015, using proprietary employee data combined with newly released micro‐data from the U.S Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Our findings illuminate the micro‐foundations of innovation in firms by highlighting a trade‐off between organizing patenting activity to maximize scope versus speed. Managerial Summary: Patenting is an important strategic tool that firms can use to protect and create value from their innovations. A firm can benefit from filing a patent application that gives it a wider possible set of claims related to an innovation. It can also benefit from faster approval of a patent application by the Patent Office. However, our study shows that there is a trade‐off between patent application scope and patent approval speed, which creates tensions for the organization of patenting activities inside firms. In particular, we find that the diversity of a patenting team is positively related to patent scope but negatively related to patenting speed, and that these relationships vary with the experience of the team leader.     

On the effects of authority on peer motivation: Learning from Wikipedia

Research Summary: We investigate the conditions under which authority can be deployed without reducing subordinate motivation. We show that lateral authority, the legitimacy to resolve task‐specific problems, is welcomed by members of an organization in the resolution of coordination conflicts, the more so (a) the fiercer the conflict to be resolved, (b) the higher the competence‐based status of the authority, (c) the lower the tenure of, and (d) the more focused the organizational members are. Analyzing the discussion behavior of members of Wikipedia between 2002 and 2014, we corroborate our allegations empirically by analyzing 642,916 article–discussion pages. Our findings, obtained for a modern collective production community, provide learning opportunities for how traditional organizations may want to govern activities of their idiosyncratically motivated staff. Managerial Summary: When managers use their (legitimate) power to take decisions on behalf of their staff, they risk setting back employees and making them detach from the firm. This danger is particularly salient whenever highly motivated teams of staff autonomously work on corporate problems and are used to governing themselves. Examples range from skunkwork initiatives within traditional firms to entire team‐based organizations, such as Valve or Zappos. When and how managers can add value by resolving conflicts within and across these teams once their self‐organization fails is what we study in this article. Inspired by data from Wikipedia, we suggest that managers should not intervene prematurely, benefit from visible competence, and are respected most for their actions by specialized peers who recently joined the organization.     

模块化产业集群及其组织效率分析

"模块化"为产业集群组织模式创新提供了新的空间.模块化产业集群在价值链形成基础、组织权力结构、协调方式、信息流动、企业竞争方式、知识创新模式和创新能力等方面与传统产业集群存在根本的不同.产业集群模块化的路径是技术模块化、产品模块化、市场模块化及组织模块化的互动.模块化产业集群具有较高的组织效率,主要表现为:以功能模块为单元的创新效率,以设计规则为约束的协调效率,以扁平化的组织结构为特征的信息传递效率,以主动创新为导向的低趋同化效率,以交易费用降低为基础的交易效率,以分工为基础的协作效率.产业集群组织的模块化也会受到来自科技发展水平、产业集群的网络性风险以及模块化系统的运行成本等因素的制约.     

Organizing for value appropriation: Configurations and performance outcomes of price management

Value creation and value appropriation are fundamental strategic processes. Both can be analyzed at the level of the individual manager, an organization or at the systemic level. On the organizational level, empirical research so far has put strong emphasis on aspects of value creation, while value appropriation has received less attention. We analyze value appropriation through the organizational implementation of pricing processes in the context of formalization, specialization, centralization, dispersion of influence, and top-management involvement in firms' pricing organization. Through a large-scale exploratory study of 419 European companies in the B2B area, we identify five empirical organizational configurations of pricing organization for value appropriation. Testing the effects of pricing configurations relating to pricing performance as well as overall firm performance reveals that more systematic approaches to pricing organization significantly improve value appropriation outcomes.     

DIY:企业组织分析的另一个视角

本文从用户DIY的角度出发 ,认为产品的模块性是这个消费模式得以实现的条件 ;产品模块性促成了企业组织的模块性。企业组织的模块性能够很好地适应用户的DIY需求 ,因而能够很好地解决市场的不确定性问题。企业组织模块性对于不确定性的作用可以刻画为一种实期权 ,因而组织模块化将产生期权价值     

再集成:一种“模块化陷阱”——基于演化视角的分析

在模块化系统中,模块的划分是一个不断变化的过程。常常可以观察到:随着时间的推移,一种模块被另一种模块所吞并,不再独立存在,相关厂商被排挤出模块化分工网。我们将这种现象称为"再集成"。"再集成"损害了模块厂商的利益,是一种"模块化陷阱"。一般认为,模块化的优势在于创造"选择权价值",而这依赖于产品的设计风险。本文借鉴了"技术周期理论"的思想,对设计风险做了动态化处理,揭示了"选择权价值"随技术演化而下降的规律,从而解释了"再集成"现象的动因。在此基础上,本文提出了一种模块系统的演化模式,并为企业规避"再集成"风险提出了建议。     

Linking product modularity and innovativeness to supply chain management in the Italian furniture industry

Much of the literature on modularity assumes that firms with modular products adopt modular organization. In the realm of supply chain management, no consensus has been reached on the effects of product modularity on supply chains (SC). This paper investigates whether SC choices depend on product modularity and innovativeness, and how SC choices can be aligned to these product features to maximize performance. A medium scale survey has been performed in the Italian furniture industry. By means of factor and cluster analyses, the SC of firms that introduced products with different levels of modularity and innovativeness have been compared. The results show that both product features must be considered when designing the SC.     

模块化组织与大型企业基因重组

随着信息技术的不断应用和发展，大型企业尤其是垂直一体化企业越来越难以生存，取而代之的是精益的模块化组织。本文认为模块化组织是大型企业在其内部市场对“基因”能力要素进行重组的必然结果。大型企业通过对“基因”能力要素进行重组，一方面扩展了其能力边界，另一方面也培育了一种新型的组织形态即模块化组织。模块化组织不但降低了大型企业内部的协调成本和外部的交易成本，也为大型企业的未来组织设计提供了新思路和新挑战。     

Organization–stakeholder fit: A dynamic theory of cooperation,compromise, and conflict between an organization and its stakeholders

Research Summary : We advance the concept of organization–stakeholder fit (O–S fit) to explain cooperative behavior between an organization and its stakeholders. O–S fit describes the compatibility that exists between an organization and a stakeholder when their characteristics are well matched. We highlight two dimensions of O–S fit: value congruence, or the supplementary fit of organizational and stakeholder values, and strategic complementarity, or the complementary fit of strategic needs and resources. For each dimension, we detail the unique relational factors—including core elements of trust, predictability, attraction/exchange, and communication—that motivate cooperation. We then explicate the ways in which value congruence and strategic complementarity dynamically interrelate over time. Finally, we consider how organization‐stakeholder misfit may result in alternative relational behaviors, such as conflict or compromise. Managerial Summary : We develop a new way of thinking about the relationship between organizations and stakeholders. Recognizing that positive relationships require a degree of fit or compatibility, we argue that cooperative behavior between an organization and its stakeholders is maximized when relational partners share both core values and strategic priorities. We explain that high fit along these two dimensions increases trust, relational predictability, attraction/exchange, and communication. We also describe how positive relationships might be formed with fit along only one dimension, and how negative relationships might result in the presence of misfit. Ultimately, we suggest that managers who want to foster positive relationships with stakeholders should concentrate on aligning their values and priorities, rather than simply concentrating on one or the other.     

Nested identities as cognitive drivers of strategy

Research Summary: Organizations face tensions to conform to industry norms for legitimacy yet differentiate for competitive advantage when implementing strategies. We suggest this tension is due to and resolved through organizations’ cognitive negotiations of multiple levels of identity. Through an inductive study in the recreational vehicle industry, we find that organizations concurrently draw on identities at the organizational, industry, and strategic group levels to formulate and enact specific competitive actions. Specifically, we find that organizational identity relates to decisions on product offerings; industry identity relates to downstream strategy; and strategic group identity relates to upstream strategy, firm boundaries, and expansion mode. Our findings highlight the importance of strategic group identity and inform a grounded model describing how organizations draw upon different levels of identity to influence strategy. Managerial Summary: Many managers experience tensions of differentiating their firms’ competitive actions from rivals, while conforming with industry norms and practices. In this article, we argue that a manager can navigate these tensions by understanding their firm, strategic group, and industry identities and how these identities interrelate. Through a qualitative case study of the U.S. recreational vehicle industry, we show that each level of identity influences different competitive actions, with firm identity connected to product offerings, industry identity related to managing downstream distribution, and strategic group identity related to firm boundary and acquisition strategies. Overall, strategic group identity is the most critical for managers as this level filters how they view competitors and provides the rules of competition.     

Sales management control level and competencies: Antecedents and consequences

The pursuit of superior salesperson performance and higher levels of sales organization effectiveness is a growing management priority. Management control is an important antecedent to several aspects of salesperson performance and organizational effectiveness. However, prior research has neglected two important issues. First, the impact of market orientation on sales manager control approaches has not been previously considered. Second, sales manager competencies in behavior-based control have not been examined, as research has focused on the level and form of control. Market orientation and the critical sales skills required of salespeople have strong antecedent relationships with sales manager control. Also, sales manager control competencies play a significant role in shaping salesperson performance, and the impact of control competencies is larger than control level. Sales manager control competencies play an important mediating role between sales manager control level and salesperson performance and sales organization effectiveness. Our findings are based on a study of British companies in which five hundred sales managers were sent surveys and 300 usable responses (a response rate of 60%) were returned. Three important implications derived from this study include: (1) sales managers need to translate market orientation into sales force behaviors; (2) control strategy should be aligned with sales force priorities; and (3) time and resources should be invested in training sales managers.