Quasi-open Product Architecture andTechnological Lock-in

An Exploratory Study on the Chinese Motorcycle Industry

Abstract

From the perspective of product architecture, we attempt to explore the reasons why the Chinese motorcycle companies are stuck in the imitation of focal models of foreign makers, on the other hand expanding their production volume to the No.1 position in the world. We propose that the architectural transformation of the original focal models to quasi-open ones mainly through horizontal coordination among local suppliers is the possible mechanism, which blocks the assemblers' paths of accumulating product development capability. This happens at the stage of structural form duplication, which weakens their incentives to progress further and reverse engineering stage.