Paper info

Modular Services in Inter-Organizational Networks: Three Metaphors

Martin Spring

The paper was published at the 25th IMP-conference in Marseille, France in 2009.

The use of the principle of modularity in the management of product design and manufacture is briefly outlined, as well as its more general potential as a way to explain the organization of inter-organisational networks. It is noted that modularity in services is relatively neglected. Metaphor and analogy are identified as ways to help break from product-based thinking in analyzing service modularity, and three metaphors are suggested, drawn from the performance of jazz music, turn-taking in conversation, and the computer science concept of 'statefulness'. Novel aspects of service modularity are therefore identified, and their implications for research in inter-organisational networks discussed.