2007 Volume 6 Pages 35-70
The study attempts to elucidate how novel technologies are introduced into products through interfirm collaboration under vertical disintegration drawing on the cases of the Japanese, Taiwanese, and Chinese mobile handset industries. The global surge of vertical disintegration enhances the interfirm modularity of development processes. Nevertheless, the adoption of a novel technology platform requires collaborative development processes between a technology platform vendor and a product developer. The level of collaborative processes is relevant to system integration of nested modules, which is driven by the necessity of system knowledge, rather than technology integration. These findings show that effective system knowledge management through intefirm collaboration plays a critical role in the assimilation of novel technology platforms into products even in modularized interfirm development processes. The collaborative process could even secure the systemic evolution of technologies and products under vertical disintegration.
