The moderating role of modularity in the relationship between technological turbulence and dominant design influence held by patent pools

We explore how the modular design of patent pools shapes their dominant position in technologically turbulent environments, offering both theoretical reasoning and empirical evidence on the causal link between modularity and dominant-design formation. Using 151 patent-pool–year observations drawn from the MPEG-LA, Derwent, and Compustat databases (1994–2020), we find that: (1) technological turbulence has an inverted-U effect on a pool's likelihood of achieving dominant-design status, with moderate turbulence opening a “window of opportunity”; (2) at moderate turbulence, organizational modularity strengthens dominance, whereas vertical integration becomes more effective under high turbulence; (3) although deep technological modularity accelerates dominance, it simultaneously threatens operational stability. By integrating patent pools—an organizational form that fuses R&D and market functions—into the SCP framework, we confirm the paradigm's validity for centralized intellectual-property governance and provide contextual guidance for firms' technology-standardization strategies and patent-pool governance.