Abstract :
During the last decade, modularity has attracted the attention of numerous management
scholars, and both theoretical and empirical studies on this topic have flourished.
However, this broad-based appeal has generated some controversies and
ambiguities on how modularity should be defined, measured and used in managerially
meaningful ways. This paper reviews the concept of modularity as a design principle
of complex systems in management studies. Applying this criterion, 125 studies were
selected and classified, grouped according to their prevalent unit of analysis: products,
production systems and organizations. Although all these studies are based on
Simon’s seminal work on the hierarchical and nearly decomposable nature of
complex systems (Simon, H.A. (1962). The architecture of complexity. Proceedings of
the American Philosophical Society, 106, 467–482), this paper shows that they offer
different definitions, measures and applications of the modularity concept. This
review reveals the implicit structure of meanings underlying this literature and
emphasizes that ambiguity in definitions and measures impedes rigorous empirical
studies capable of understanding the relationship between modularity in product, in
production and in organization design. Cautions and directions for future research
are discussed.
