This study focuses on the role of modularity in reconfiguring business ecosystems. Ecosystem scholars systematically point product modularity as a condition to efficiently manage technology interdependencies within business ecosystems. But the literature remains silent about the role of modularity in shaping these interdependencies. This gap seems all the more critical as, when facing important technological changes such as those brought by digital convergence, ecosystems can have to reconfigure in order to adapt the structure of these interdependencies to new technical and strategic challenges. In such context: How can modularity help a firm to reconfigure its business ecosystem and to evolve its position within it in order to face digital convergence? To address this research question this study focuses on the case of one of the leading global car manufacturer. We conducted a longitudinal analysis of the evolutions of the electronic architecture of its vehicles over the period 1984-2020. We found that to face the advent of connected and autonomous vehicles the car maker shifted the nature of modularity, from a siloed modular logic into a layered modular logic in order to radically transform the structure of interdependencies within its ecosystem.
