Research on the Cluster-Level Architectural Knowledge: Exploration of Six Content Dimensions of Architectural Knowledge based on a Case Study

Literature Review

Henderson and Clark (1990) proposed the concept of proponent and architecture from product development perspective, and they divided knowledge into component knowledge and architectural knowledge, among this, the component knowledge was the core design concept and its implementation of the knowledge in a specified component, while the architectural knowledge referred to linking the component knowledge into a coherent overall aspects of knowledge. Matusik and Hill (1998) further divided the knowledge into component knowledge and architectural knowledge from organization level. They noted that component knowledge is concerned with the discrete knowledge of subroutine or the whole organization in the operation which was a part or component instead of overall knowledge, such as knowledge of the new product development, inventory management, customer billing, which was only one aspect of the company’s knowledge structure and architecture knowledge just showed the opposite, it was associated with the organization as a whole, related to the practices and routines within organization, coordination with the component knowledge and its application into the production.

Architecture knowledge is the understanding of reciprocity and reputation on the level of industrial cluster through the network interactive, mutual dependence and practices of the common interests among the cluster members, and it is recognized by the members of the cluster but a tacit rules of game (Tallman & Jenkins, 2004).Component knowledge is relatively clear and used to describe the integral part of a body of knowledge which can be distinguished, on the contrary, the architecture knowledge is mutual understanding and industrial atmosphere, owned by the cluster as a complete system, and cannot exist independently (Porter, 1998), and also, it has the feature of non-clarity and causal ambiguity, path dependence and rooted within the born system (Cook & Brown,1999) which can provide sustainable competitive advantage to the organization (Tallman & Jenkins, 2004).