Research On Modularization, Knowledge Transfer And Platform Organization Performance

Since the 1990s, the trend of service economic globalization is getting more and more obvious, the service economic has been integrated with the knowledge-based economy, the new economy, and the network economy for interaction, which has promoted the industrial revolution of services organization. The The Theory of Modularity is receiving the more and more attention, and the new organizational structure has challenged the traditional industrial mode. The emergence of industrial modularity has completely broken the existing industry rules, and changed the market boundary (Baldwin & Clark).The modularity service industry has become the focus increasingly, the structure of the organization is a new way that the organization achieves the capitalization of the own tacit knowledge by the knowledge transfer and the sharing of resources. The tacit knowledge becomes the important intangible resources and assets gradually, and the large organizations form is gradually transformed into the combinable modularity organizational form (Liu Jisheng). The research of modularity organization and the transfer of knowledge have effectively revealed the flowing direction and mode of knowledge resource in the modularity organization, while they have revealed the influence of knowledge transfer on the organizational performance, which can be more advantageous to promote structural change of organization and mode innovation.Most of current modularity service researches are in the financial services and IT modularity services, and there is less modularity research for the other services. However, how to apply the modularity pattern of emerging service-industries as logistics industry besides the traditional industries? Research in this area is also very important, compared to the mature and tangible goods, and the practice of modularity service goes faster than the theory because of the intangible, the heterogeneity, and the other characteristics of services. Among the service modules, it is more difficult to carry out modularity study because it is difficult to obtain accurate information due to implicit knowledge, intellectual property rights and the other factors. How does knowledge transfer and influence on factors in a modularity service organization? What is the purpose of the knowledge transfer to improve the performance of the modularity service organization? How to measure the performance of the service platform organization? This is currently an important research topic in front of us.This study has taken the logistics service platform organization as the object of research, and modularity platform theory as the basic research perspective, build the theoretical framework "modularity features-knowledge transfer-platform organizational performance", analyze the influencing mechanism of knowledge transfer on the modularity organization, and the impact of knowledge transfer effects on the organizational performance, and reveal the mechanism process. Following this analytical framework, we have put forward the following questions for the research: (1) Does the platform organization have a modularity platform feature? How to characterize these characteristics? What is the influence of modularity organization structure on the organizational performance? (2) Take the knowledge transfer as the clue of platform organizational innovation, how is the knowledge transfer activity between platform and platform users among the different types of platform organizations? How is the influence mechanism of modularity structure on knowledge transfer? (3) Is there any significant influence of the modularity organizational structure on knowledge transfer? Furthermore, how is the final influence of knowledge transfer on platform organizational performance how? How is the concrete impact mechanism?For practical problems and significance, the study has been gradually expanded in-depth to get the following conclusions:At first, the related topics literatures have been reviewed and commented on the basis of the research ideas. The connotation of the modularity, the platform theory, the knowledge transfer and the organizational performance has been reviewed. The modularity theory has reviewed from the modularity concept and dimensions. Starting from the schools of the theory of platform, focus on the modularity product to introduce the platform schools in details; analyze the knowledge transfer concepts and content, influencing factors and the general model of knowledge transfer, and describe the mechanism and performance of knowledge transfer from knowledge sharing and knowledge integration; finally, analyze its measurement from two dimensions of organization & performance and two aspects of cooperation performance and innovation performance.Secondly, put forward the innovative modularity connotation of logistics service platform. The platform enterprises and member enterprises on the logistics platform have utilized the ideas and methods of modularity design to establish the product system of logistics service, improve the existing quality and performance of services. Modularization of platform organization refers to the process that the platform enterprises decompose the service products into the independent modules according to the functional requirements and matching relationship, form the modularity product service system based on the interface rules, and provide the functional product by the platform vendors. Accordingly, the measuring scale has been designed to measure the modularity features of the logistics platform organization, and the good reliability & validity have been verified through the empirical study.Third, establish the measuring concepts and key items of analysis through the case study method. By the encoding method, based on the characters of openness and modularity, analyze the general laws of knowledge transfer in-depth, which exists among the platforms, customers and vendors of the logistics platform organization.Fourth, the influence of platform organization openness, modularity functionality, coupling and interaction on the knowledge transfer activities has been validated by the case studies on the basis of platform theory and modularity theory in the paper. Based on this conclusion of research, the theoretical models which the modularity structure and dimensions of analysis in the platform organization influence on the platform organizational performance through knowledge transfer have been put forward after the theoretical analysis and literature review. And then the significant correlation between the modularization and the platform organizational performance has been confirmed through a wide range of questionnaires surveys and statistical analysis. Specifically, it comprises independent, standard and combinable modularity functionality, the loose modular coupling and the interaction that is characterized with trust, communication and commitment, which have a positive correlation with the platform organizations cooperative performance and innovation performance significantly. Consider modularity features influencing on the platform organizational performance mechanism from the intermediate variables of transfer knowledge, we can find that the influence of the modularity nature on the platform organizational performance is realized through the mediating role of knowledge transfer.Fifth, make the exploratory expanding research based on the previous research results. Because the exploration in the process of the platform organization modularity process is less, this study has sorted out the modularity theory documents, explored by the theoretical interpretation and cases, started from modular general processes and services modular process model, and proposed the four-phase model of platform organization module. That is, the platform concept development (including needs analysis and concept definition), platform architecture design (design rules, structural design and function to match), the platform module design (interface settings, standard setting and module combination) and perfect delivery of platform (service introduction and service improvement). Based on Nonaka model of knowledge transfer (SECI), and the "four-phase flow of knowledge" of Yu Donghua, and Rui Mingjie, the general process of knowledge transfer of modularity platform organization is also divided into four phases to study.In this study, the application of modularity theory in the service sector has been expanded and extended usefully, and we have researched the influence of modularity innovation on the logistics service platform under the background of the rapid development of the logistics industry, the knowledge transfer in the modularity process and the action on organizational performance; at the same time, based on refining and validating knowledge transfer dimension, we have established the dynamic characteristics of knowledge transfer among the modularity organizations, explored its impact on organizational performance, overcome the flaws of previous studies effectively, expanded and complemented the existing research of knowledge transfer dimensions well.