Product, Organizational, and Performance Effects of Product Modularity

Abstract

A lot has been written about the performance effects associated with implementing a higher degree of product modularity in a firm’s product portfolio. However, these findings are mostly based on case research in the electronics and automotive industries and have hardly been tested and generalized beyond these industries. To be able to establish whether firms not part of these industries would experience the same performance effects, survey research will be needed. To support future survey research, this paper proposes an operationalization of product modularity and details the link between product modularity and firm performance, to support the future development of measures and hypotheses.