separately without compromising the whole (Simon, 1962; Clark, 1985; Langlois and
Robertson, 1992; Baldwin and Clark, 2000). In other words, when information is cheap,
designers and engineers can codify the architecture of a technical system -- specifying
the way the parts will fit together -- and begin to experiment with both the component
modules and the architecture. In contrast, when information is expensive, such
experimentation is not practical