The Strategic Make-or-Buy Decisions on Design

The Strategic Make-or-Buy decisions on Design sheds light on the variety of transaction patterns between firms when the ownership of design drawings and detail design tasks are to be allocated during new product development. To refine the classic discussion on the boundaries of firms, the author bridges product architecture design strategy and transaction pattern choice and proposes that the architectural attributes of components and the make-or-buy decisions on design are mutually influenced. Using motorcycle and automotive industries in Japan and China as the samples for empirical studies, this book also conducts a provocative comparison on two different product development systems based on the forward and reverse engineering process. From the original analytical framework and the convincing empirical studies, this research has rich implications for inter-firm relationship management in new product development and for understanding the development path of the Chinese manufacturing industries.