Exploring the duality between product and organizational architectures
Subtitle: a test of the "mirroring" hypothesis
By: Alan D. MacCormack, John Rusnak, Carliss Y. Baldwin .
Contributors: Rusnak, John; Baldwin, Carliss Y. (Carliss Young); Harvard Business School
Edition: 2nd rev.
Series: Working paper / Harvard Business School -- 08-039; Working paper (Harvard Business School) -- 08-039.
Publisher: Harvard Business School
Published: 2007
Place of publication: [Boston]
Number of pages: 40
Description: A variety of academic studies argue that a relationship exists between the structure of an organization and the design of the products that this organization produces. Specifically, products tend to "mirror" the architectures of the organizations in which they are developed. We explore this relationship in the software industry. Our research takes advantage of a natural experiment, in that we observe products that fulfill the same function being developed by very different organizational forms. We find strong evidence to support the mirroring hypothesis. In all of the pairs we examine, the product developed by the loosely-coupled organization is significantly more modular than the product from the tightly-coupled organization.
Notes: "March 2008, revised October 2008, January 2011"--Publisher's web site.

Includes bibliographical references.