Study On Modularization Technology Innovation Of Firms In Small And Medium-firm Clusters

Firm clusters in Silicon Valley, the 3_rd Italy and Baden-Wurttember in Germany, with the great development in southeast of China, bring us much inspiration. Firm clusters as a special phenomenon, make an important contribution to the development of local economics and technology innovation, becoming increasingly popular.Firms in firm clusters have their own advantages, such as economy of externality, marketing, innovation and low transaction cost. Since Joseph A. Schumpeter first put forward innovation in 1912, technology innovation has been a perpetual topic. Technology is a determinant to firm's growth, meanwhile has effect on getting and strengthening advantages of firm clusters. In view of technology innovation, firm clusters have advantages as follows: network, resource integration, specialized division of labor, knowledge diffusion and accumulation, excellent learning skills, in this way firm clusters can promote technology innovation. Modularity first appeared and was put into practice in mechanics, then was widely used in other area and subjects like management, economics etc. And it is a heated topic.In this paper, we try to find a intersection of firm clusters, innovation and modularity, and do research on the three mentioned above as a whole. Treat small and medium-firm clusters as a object, then analyse the relationship between modularity and technology innovation. After inspecting the predecessors' research about technology innovation, with some traditional modes of technology innovation like technology innovation on one's own master, technology innovation relying on imitation, technology innovation relying on cooperation, etc, we divide the process of technology innovation in small and medium-firm clusters into four modularities: organization between firms, technology research, technology develop and produce, and technology marketing, based on the proposition—advantages of small and medium-firm clusters originate from technology innovation. Then we put forward modes of modularization technology innovation in small and medium-firm clusters. This pattern of technology innovation is in concert to characteristics of small and medium-firm clusters as a media—organization. Also has high flexibility to respond rapidly to changes. Modularization design refers to six activities: Splitting, Substitutting, Augmenting, Excluding, Inverting, Porting. The six activities is complementary. We argue the possibility of this mode. At last, we different from modularization technology innovation between firms in small and medium-firm clusters, and that not in clusters.Our discuss is complementary to the predecessors' research, and enrich the theory about firm clusters and technology innovation, also extend the functions of modularity. This research give a direction for the following research and can promote and direct the technology innovation in small and medium-firm clusters, leading to a following change from primary to senior.