Network contingencies in the relationship between design rules and architectural innovation performance

Erwin Hofman, Johannes Halman, Bart van Looy

Research output: Contribution to journalMeeting AbstractOther research output

Abstract

Architectural innovation is fundamental to the renewal of technological systems. However, it can be a real challenge to organize architectural innovation, all the more so when success hinges upon close collaboration with other firms that are responsible for different subsystems of the end product. This study examines the impact of product design rules and the degree of organizational coupling among innovation network partners on the performance of architectural innovation projects. Using data from 270 collaborative innovation networks in the United States, we found that the presence of design rules initially improves performance, reaching a point after which dominant design rules have a net negative impact on the performance of collaborative architectural innovation projects. At the same time, our findings reveal that lead firms can alleviate this negative effect by selecting loosely coupled innovation partners. Thus, our findings suggest that the presence of design rules and the extent of partner coupling should be considered jointly when optimizing network configurations that focus on architectural innovation.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)988-993
Number of pages6
JournalAcademy of Management Proceedings
Volume2016
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2016
Event76th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management 2016: Making Organizations Meaningful - Anaheim, United States
Duration: 5 Aug 20169 Aug 2016
Conference number: 76

Keywords

  • Architectural innovation performance
  • Design rules
  • Organizational coupling

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