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  • 2020
  • Working Paper
  • HBS Working Paper Series

Design Rules, Volume 2: How Technology Shapes Organizations: Chapter 4 The Mirroring Hypothesis: Linkages Inside and Across Transaction Free Zones

By: Carliss Y. Baldwin
  • Format:Print
  • | Language:English
  • | Pages:28
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Abstract

A technology is a specific way to achieve a material goal. It describes a feasible path—a recipe—by which a group of people can arrive at a goal that none could achieve individually. Technical recipes thus require linkages between and among the various contributors to the technical process.
The purpose of this chapter is to look at the relationship between the steps in a given technical recipe and organizational linkages between and among people implementing the recipe. I begin by introducing two concepts: (1) technical dependencies which are properties of the technical architecture; and (2) organizational ties which are properties of the organizational architecture. The idea that organizational ties ought to correspond to technical dependencies is known as the mirroring hypothesis. This chapter defines the mirroring hypothesis and describes its origins. It then investigates the theory behind the hypothesis and identifies a set of “predictable exceptions” where the hypothesis does not hold. Finally it considers the evidence for and against mirroring in the economy at large.

Keywords

Modularity; Mirroring Hypothesis; Information Technology; Organizations

Citation

Baldwin, Carliss Y. "Design Rules, Volume 2: How Technology Shapes Organizations: Chapter 4 The Mirroring Hypothesis: Linkages Inside and Across Transaction Free Zones." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 21-032, August 2020.
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About The Author

Carliss Y. Baldwin

→More Publications

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    • Faculty Research

    Computer-Implemented Methods and Systems for Measuring, Estimating, and Managing Economic Outcomes and Technical Debt in Software Systems and Projects: US Patent 11,126,427 B2

    By: Daniel J. Sturtevant, Carliss Baldwin, Alan MacCormack, Sunny Ahn and Sean Gilliland
    • 2020
    • Faculty Research

    Design Rules, Volume 2: How Technology Shapes Organizations: Chapter 7 The Value Structure of Technologies, Part 2: Strategy without Numbers

    By: Carliss Y. Baldwin
    • 2020
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    Design Rules, Volume 2: How Technology Shapes Organizations: Chapter 6 The Value Structure of Technologies, Part 1: Mapping Functional Relationships

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More from the Author
  • Computer-Implemented Methods and Systems for Measuring, Estimating, and Managing Economic Outcomes and Technical Debt in Software Systems and Projects: US Patent 11,126,427 B2 By: Daniel J. Sturtevant, Carliss Baldwin, Alan MacCormack, Sunny Ahn and Sean Gilliland
  • Design Rules, Volume 2: How Technology Shapes Organizations: Chapter 7 The Value Structure of Technologies, Part 2: Strategy without Numbers By: Carliss Y. Baldwin
  • Design Rules, Volume 2: How Technology Shapes Organizations: Chapter 6 The Value Structure of Technologies, Part 1: Mapping Functional Relationships By: Carliss Y. Baldwin
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