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At its heart, the mirroring hypothesis seeks to examine the extent of an architectural mapping between firms’ strategic choices of product architecture and firm architecture – within-firm mirroring - and between firms’ architectural choices and industry structures – across-firm mirroring. In a recent literature review, Colfer & Baldwin (2010) found broad support but notable exceptions, leading to calls for a more nuanced view. Some initial work has occurred primarily in the air-conditioning and motor vehicle industries. Furlan, Cabiguso & Camuffo (2014) examine the across-firm mirroring hypothesis in the air-conditioning industry, and find that the ‘mirror’ becomes misted by high rates of component change, and in a study of the motor vehicle industry, Zirpoli, Cabigiuso & Camuffo (2013) suggest that the mirroring hypothesis may become misted as firms seek to integrate external sources of innovation into complex product development.\ud \ud Most importantly, we recognise that the mirroring hypothesis may be observed at numerous levels e.g. product to firm, component to task boundaries, task to knowledge boundaries and knowledge to firm boundaries. The rate of component change and the degree of complexity as two previously identified conditions under which the mirror may become misted will impact different potential mirroring relationships in different ways. In essence, we show how factors at both the product architecture and the underlying product component level may influence the degree of mirroring and misting, thereby potentially going some of the way to understanding why Colfer and Baldwin (2010) observed inconsistent results.

Theorists within the modularity tradition have hinted at the potential benefits of a “mirror” between the structure of a product development firm and the technical product it designs. At its heart, the so-called mirroring hypothesis seeks to examine two important and pervasive relationships: (1) the extent of an architectural mapping between firms’ strategic choices of product architecture and firm architecture – within-firm mirroring - and (2) between firms’ architectural choices and industry structures – across-firm mirroring.\ud \ud In supporting the theoretical logic for the strong test of the mirroring hypothesis (ie that the mirroring extends to the knowledge boundaries), advocates of modularity argue that its design principles permit an easier partitioning of knowledge and hence productive capabilities. However, despite the intuition that knowledge boundaries can be successfully partitioned, its enactment appears less prevalent in practice, causing a ‘misting of the mirror’ in respect to the strong form of the mirroring hypothesis.\ud \ud This paper investigates whether the strong test of mirroring in respect of the UK pension industry between 2000 and 2015 holds. We add to the existing contingent variables of complexity and rate of change in terms of misting the mirror the notion of value and how it would seem to determine whether knowledge boundaries are partitioned or integrated and, hence, whether mirroring is present or absent.\ud \ud The paper is structured as follows: (1) the extant literature is examined, focusing on recent contingent perspectives to the mirroring hypotheses, (2) the research method is explored, (3) findings from a retrospective study of the UK personal pensions product market between 2000 and 2015 are presented, (4) the findings are discussed and further contingencies are highlighted that may ‘mist the mirror’, and (5) some concluding remarks and directions for future research are identified.

The Society of Friends (Quakers) has a long tradition in the world of business. In this short article, I characterise one aspect of a distinctly ‘Quaker way’ of doing business by examining the theology and process by which Friends conduct Meetings for Business which may have potential relevance as a collaborative method of decision-making in today’s increasingly complex business organisations.

The Religious Society of Friends (known as ‘Quakers’) has a long tradition in responsible business, dating back to at least the 17th Century. Today, the legacy of Quakers in business can still be witnessed in industries as diverse as chocolate as banking. In fact, many of today’s global organisations can either be traced back to their Quaker roots (such as Barclays and Lloyds). The Quakers were also the first entrepreneurs to trade based on their trustworthiness and ‘modern inventions’ such as fixed prices and socially responsible investment have Quaker roots. \ud Quaker entrepreneurs were and are well-known for strong ethical values, derived from a theology committed to finding “that of God in everyone” and enacted through testimonies to equality, honesty, simplicity and peace. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Quakers saw trade and business as social reform, a possible route to eradicate poverty and social ills among the working, urban population. In fact, it is argued that Quakers’ concern with social reform was a key ingredient as the engine of the Industrial Revolution. Examples included the ironworks established by Quakers at Coalbrooke in Shropshire. Later Quaker concern with the over-use of alcohol led to the emergence of the chocolate entrepreneurs such as Cadbury’s and Rowntree. \ud If there is a distinct set of Quaker business ethics that characterised Quaker entrepreneurs it was often based on (1) honesty and truth in all business dealings, including financial matters and truth in advertising, (2) a commitment to improving the life conditions of its employees through mechanisms such as pay well-above the average and access to suitable housing and healthcare, which often manifested itself in the canonical ‘model villages’ of Bourneville in Birmingham and Earswick in York, (3) full payment of taxes due, (4) using a proportion of profits for philanthropic purposes, and (5) more recently, an environmental concern. \ud With growing contemporary interest in how firms manage the triple bottom line, and in the wake of the economic turbulence of the last decade, how alternative business models can contribute to innovation, the Quaker approach to responsible business has much to tell us. \ud This short presentation aims to show how responsible approaches to business are perhaps nothing new – and how Quakers concern for social reform can provide contemporary business with lessons about leadership, organisation design, human resource management, marketing and advertising, corporate governance and entrepreneurship for social purposes. \ud Distilling a Quaker approach to responsible business is an exciting and valuable new research area that will help inform the field of responsible business and ethics.

The mirroring hypothesis – the assumed architectural mapping between firms’ strategic choices of product architecture and firm architecture, and between firms’ architectural choices and industry structures – has received mixed empirical support. The focus in thus shifting from ascertaining whether the mirroring hypothesis holds, to the product architecture and component-level conditions that may support the mirroring of architectures at different levels. We utilize an industrial economics perspective to develop a stylised product architecture typology and hypothesise how the combined effects of product architecture type, product complexity and the rate of product component change may be associated with phases of mirroring or misting (imperfect mirroring). Our framework helps to reconcile some of the existing mixed support for the mirroring hypothesis.

The product modularity literature has burgeoned in recent years. However, there has been limited focus on how product modularity may potentially facilitate product market internationalisation strategies. The focus of this conceptual paper is in exploring whether open and modular product architectures may be associated with increasing product market internationalisation, and whether therefore the relationship between product architecture and product market internationalisation can be hypothesised as an extension of the so-called mirroring hypothesis – that there exists an architectural mapping between product, firm and industry architectures. Our propositions may provide the basis for future empirical research.

The mirroring hypothesis – the assumed architectural mapping between firms’ strategic choices of product architecture and firm architecture, and between firms’ architectural choices and the industry structures – is a central theme within modularity theory. Empirical support for this hypothesis across numerous studies is significant, but mixed – suggesting the need to focus less upon whether the hypothesis holds and more upon the conditions under which it holds. As part of this shift in focus, within this research we utilize an industrial economics perspective to develop a stylised product architecture typology and hypothesise how the combined effects of product architecture type, product complexity and the rate of product component change may be associated with phases of mirroring or misting. Our framework helps to reconcile some existing mixed evidence and provides the foundation for further empirical research.

This paper contributes to the literature on the within-firm and across-firm mirroring hypothesis – the assumed architectural mapping between firms’ strategic choices of product architecture and firm architecture, and between firms’ architectural choices and the industry structures that emerge. Empirical evidence is both limited and mixed and there is evidently a need for a more nuanced theory that embeds not only whether the mirroring hypothesis holds, but under what product architecture and component-level conditions it may or may not hold. We invoke an industrial economics perspective to develop a stylised product architecture typology and hypothesise how the combined effects of product architecture type, product complexity and the rate of product component change may be associated with phases of mirroring or misting. Our framework helps to reconcile much existing mixed evidence and provides the foundation for further empirical research.

There is a growing management literature examining the possible benefits of modularity and the presence of a ‘mirroring hypothesis’ between product architecture and organisational architecture.\ud \ud Despite some criticisms and limitations, such a relationship has been examined in the literature, with many empirical studies supporting the hypothesis both within and, to a lesser extent, across firms. However, surprisingly few empirical studies have explicitly examined the possibility of a triadic mirroring relationship encompassing the boundaries of the firm, or examined how the mirroring hypothesis may evolve over time in response to changes in the product or market environment. This raises the central questions of ‘Is the mirroring hypothesis dynamic and evolutionary in response to changes in the product or market environment?’; ‘Is the mirroring hypothesis supported encompassing firm boundaries?’ and, ‘Is the evolutionary path bi-directional in response to architectural innovation?’\ud \ud In response, this developmental paper sets out two evolutionary possibilities concerning how firm and product architectures may align over time on the basis of transaction cost economics (TCE) and real options theory, and establishes some initial propositions.