← Search

Management Science Vol. 49 No. 9 2003

Remark on “Appropriateness and Impact of Platform-Based Product Development”

J. D. Dana

Department of Management and Strategy, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208-2028

Abstract

When platform-based manufacturing exhibits overdesign costs then platform adoption will lead to a decrease in product line differentiation. In contrast, Krishnan and Gupta (2001) argued that in the presence of overdesign costs and platform economies, platform production always leads to a more differentiated product family. While Krishnan and Gupta analyzed one particular parameterized cost function and define overdesign costs and platform economies narrowly in terms of their parameters, I propose a general definition of overdesign costs and show that platform adoption reduces product differentiation for all cost functions satisfying this definition, regardless of whether or not they exhibit platform economies.

DOI
10.1287/mnsc.49.9.1264.16572
Volume
49
Issue
9
Pages
1264-1267
Language
en
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib crossref openalex

Cite