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Full-Text Articles in Management Information Systems
Competition In Modular Clusters, Carliss Y. Baldwin, C. Jason Woodard
Competition In Modular Clusters, Carliss Y. Baldwin, C. Jason Woodard
C. Jason Woodard
The last twenty years have witnessed the rise of disaggregated “clusters,” “networks,” or “ecosystems” of firms. In these clusters the activities of R&D, product design, production, distribution, and system integration may be split up among hundreds or even thousands of firms. Different firms will design and produce the different components of a complex artifact (like the processor, peripherals, and software of a computer system), and different firms will specialize in different stages of a complex production process. This paper considers the pricing behavior and profitability of these so-called modular clusters. In particular, we investigate a possibility hinted at in prior …
Architectural Control Points, C. Jason Woodard
Architectural Control Points, C. Jason Woodard
C. Jason Woodard
System designers and technology strategists have long recognized the concept of an architectural control point as a way to identify parts of a system that have particular strategic importance. Despite the vast body of work on system architecture in the engineering design literature, however, few authors have attempted to define architectural control points or study them systematically. Moreover, some industry participants have questioned whether architectural control is still a valuable or achievable goal in an era of increasingly open standards. This paper offers tentative definitions of architectural control, architectural control points, and architectural strategy. In a longer version of the …