Title: Promoting adaptive agility through modularity: a Chinese case

Authors: Ling Ding; Jin-xi Wu; Taohua Ouyang

Addresses: Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, Ministry of Commerce, Beijing City, 100710, China; School of Social Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing City, 100084, China ' School of Social Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing City, 100084, China ' School of Economics and Management, Beihang University, Beijing City, 100191, China

Abstract: Organisational agility is currently a popular topic in a dynamic and uncertain environment as to the academic and practitioner communities. This paper, taking Hisense from China's manufacturing as a case, aims to reveal the building process and triggers of adaptive agility through R&D and production of Chinese flat-panel TVs from the perspective of modularity. This paper opens the black box between modularity and adaptive agility. It suggests that the adaptive systems of R&D and production are built through modularity. They can bring adaptive agilities including diversified varieties, advanced features, fast time-to-market, high quality and low cost (price). Enterprise achieves the balance of 'degree' and overall optimal performance price ratio.

Keywords: modularity; organisational agility; case study; adaptive system; Chinese manufacturing.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMTM.2019.104552

International Journal of Manufacturing Technology and Management, 2019 Vol.33 No.6, pp.446 - 467

Accepted: 23 May 2017
Published online: 20 Jan 2020 *

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