Weighing the impact of ICT on modular SMEs

We call ldquomodularrdquo firm a network of small interacting firms, exchanging artifacts (atoms) and information (bits) to accomplish a common goal. In this paper we propose a method to assess how effective is the information exchange among firm modular units. We propose to model a modular firm as a set of units that interact through well-defined channels: structural information together with type, format, and traffic shape are used to weigh the information exchange and the value associated to a given organizational setting.