Abstract

     Knowledge management for high-tech products, based on innovative product architectures and components, is a critical issue for market satisfaction. Scientific research has widely investigated the competitive advantage that product knowledge owned by Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) has on product innovation. Nonetheless, the linkage between OEMs’ accumulated knowledge on single modules and customer satisfaction is less explored. The article aims at identifying what level of knowledge OEMs should have on both the single modules and the whole product architecture to achieve better customer satisfaction. The research method uses text mining techniques on patent documents to detect associations of modules and product knowledge with patented technologies. Regression analyses are thereafter performed to test the linkage of such a knowledge with customer satisfaction using SPSS. The explorative analysis of the smartphone industry demonstrates that an effect on the final market is found for specific modules, such as application processor, camera and touchscreen controller.

Introduction

     In an era of globalization, featured by new digital technologies and extremely variable markets, products are becoming increasingly complex and customized (Cammarano et al., 2021, Cappa et al., 2021, Olsen and Tomlin, 2020). Effectively managing the complexity of high-tech products featured by modular architecture may require a specific level of knowledge. Knowledge management is an essential and strategic element for a company’s competitive advantage (Gloet and Terziovski, 2004, Pereira et al., 2021, Yang, 2010). In particular, companies performance is highly dependent on the exploitation of internal knowledge resources to create greater value for the end product (Alavi and Leidner, 2001). From managerial literature, several theoretical developments, such as the ‘Knowledge Based-View’, affirm that the innovative abilities of companies strictly depend on intellectual capital and knowledge (Lam et al., 2021, Subramaniam and Youndt, 2005, Xie et al., 2018b). Moreover, it is well-known that, in order to gain cost and production flexibility, many high-tech companies employ modular product architectures as a competitive strategy to manage product complexity (Garud and Kumaraswamy, 1995, Grant, 2005). Specifically, a modular product architecture simplifies the complexity of product development by defining the design of the single modules which will be integrated into the end product through standard interfaces (Baldwin and Clark, 2002).

Conclusions

     The study investigates the relationship between knowledge management, modular products and customer satisfaction in the smartphone industry. Patent data provides an indication of the technological knowledge possessed by the company, while customer satisfaction was measured through a total score based on online reviews and opinions. The use of text mining techniques supported the decomposition of a complex product into several modules. Specifically, the patent content analysis defined different levels of knowledge on the product and smartphone modules. Using this approach, it was possible to analyse the association between knowledge on single modules and customer satisfaction. The results provide a range of insights, indicating on which modules knowledge needs to be preserved for the OEM in order to increase customer satisfaction.

     The use of patent data to identify the stock of knowledge a corporation possesses is one of this study’s drawbacks. In fact, not all inventions are filed for patents and, aspects of tacit knowledge are not considered. Future research will aim to analyse other sectors with modular products such as automotive. A further direction of future research might involve analysis on a bigger and more recent sample of smartphones, also considering other modules besides the ten studied in this article.