Technology Standardization for Innovation: How Google Leverages an Open Digital Platform

The aim of this study is to investigate firms’ strategies for developing and diffusing technology standards while maintaining a consensus with competitors in their industry. We conducted a case study of information technology (IT) standardization and analysed how Google drives the development and diffusion of HTML5 standards. Accordingly, this study sheds light on two strategic initiatives and two relational practices of standard development and diffusion. Adopting the technologies developed by other firms and forming alliances with other browser vendors are key to influencing the standardization process. Additionally, by building partnerships with developer communities, Google has accelerated the development and diffusion of the HTML5 standards. The mechanisms behind Google’s standardization strategies are also discussed.

The Dialectics of Technology Standardization

Technology standardization unfolds as a dialectic process marked by paradoxical tensions. However, standardization research has yet to provide a dialectic analysis of how tensions and management responses interact recursively over time, and with what effect. In this paper, we apply dialectics to analyze an action research study of a Swedish initiative that developed and diffused a technology standard to facilitate the integration of disparate IT systems in road haulage firms. Drawing on the technology standardization literature and our empirical analysis, we engage in midrange theorizing to capture the recursive dynamics through which standard-setters construct and respond to manifestations of three latent tensions: development versus diffusion activities, private versus public interests, and local versus global solutions. Our resulting dialectic theorizing explicates how standard-setters bring these latent tensions into being; how they construct salient tensions through the oppositional logics of polarization, complementarity, and mutuality; how they manage these tensions through splitting, integrating, and suspension responses; and how consequential functional, architectural, and organizational standardization outcomes produce a new social order in which new tensions emerge. These theoretical insights contribute to both the technology standardization and dialectics literatures.

An Application of p-Fibonacci Error-Correcting Codes to Cryptography

In addition to their usefulness in proving one’s identity electronically, identification protocols based on zero-knowledge proofs allow designing secure cryptographic signature schemes by means of the Fiat–Shamir transform or other similar constructs. This approach has been followed by many cryptographers during the NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) standardization process for quantum-resistant signature schemes. NIST candidates include solutions in different settings, such as lattices and multivariate and multiparty computation. While error-correcting codes may also be used, they do not provide very practical parameters, with a few exceptions. In this manuscript, we explored the possibility of using the error-correcting codes proposed by Stakhov in 2006 to design an identification protocol based on zero-knowledge proofs. We showed that this type of code offers a valid alternative in the error-correcting code setting to build such protocols and, consequently, quantum-resistant signature schemes.

Role of Women in the Pursuit of NDE 4.0

This paper is intended to highlight roles that women can and likely will play in shaping the future of NDE 4.0, from execution to leadership levels as well as from development to transformation activities. As we build momentum toward adopting Industry 4.0 into the nondestructive evaluation (NDE) domain, we face multiple challenges such as technology standardization, talent and skills shortfall, massive transformation, and regulatory and certification standards (Singh 2019, 2020a). Many of these challenges are better addressed with a proper mix of gender in responsible teams. Women in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) fields are a source of talent that can be harnessed as digitalization becomes a major part of the NDE sector. According to a recent Forbes article, traits like listening and empathy serve women well in “change leadership,” which is the ability to influence and inspire action in others and respond with vision and agility during periods of growth, disruption, or uncertainty to bring about the needed change (Lipkin 2019). While working the innovation value chain, emotional intelligence makes women better suited to capturing marketplace insight and easing friction in technology adoption, and a balance of gender in a team makes for more productive ideation sessions for effective problem-solving and objective execution. This paper presents literature research triggered by personal experience and substantiated by recent candid conversations with women leaders in NDE, to highlight the importance of a blended and balanced gender mix required for NDE 4.0.

Challenges Facing Technology Standardization in the Age of Digital Transformation

It is widely recognized that we are in rapid transition to the so-called fourth industrial revolution, a world of digitalization and mass interconnectedness enabled by a plethora of emergent powerful technologies including artificial intelligence (AI), internet of things (IoT), and distributed ledgers (DLT). A key element of this “revolution” is the move to digital manufacturing. While undoubtedly exciting, this transition presents challenges to policymakers, industry, and societal stakeholders alike. One such challenge is defining an optimum level for any market intervention measure(s), such that a balance is struck between ensuring a pro-industrial and economic innovation-friendly approach and guaranteeing adequate levels of consumer-focused protection. Standardization can be leveraged as one element of interventionary policy designed to help strike the required balance, both in its well-proven bottom-up and industry-led voluntary application and as a tool to support implementation of regulations. With a focus on digital transformation, this chapter will analyze the readiness of the current standardization system to support this significant transition focusing on strengths and challenges to be addressed from the perspective of industry, policymakers, and standards-setting organizations.