The technology of the components stays the same, but the configuration of the components is changed to produce a new design.

• A. Act of insight
• B. Configurational innovation
• C. Design specification
• D. Architectural innovation

Answer: (D)

Architectural innovation happens when you keep the same building blocks but change how they are linked together. If the components themselves don’t change, a new design comes from reconfiguring the relationships, interfaces, and overall architecture of the system. That shift in structure can create new functionality, form, or performance without introducing new technologies in the components themselves.

In this scenario, the emphasis is on rearranging how the parts interact rather than changing what the parts are or inventing new components, which is why it fits architectural innovation. A quick mental image: take the same set of parts and rearrange their connections to yield a different product design—the novelty comes from the architecture, not from new components.