Complex Network Perspective on Collaboration in ICT Standardization

Standardization is a crucial enabler of global business of information and communications technologies. Convergence of the underlying networking paradigms of licensed mobile communication and license-exempted internet has made progress, but full integration is still far from being complete. For standardization professionals, the unpredictable convergence makes decision making and participation in standardization complicated. This chapter examines collaboration in five closely related standardization organizations working in this field during the years from 2003 to 2008. The results show similarities and differences in collaboration structures and behaviours reflecting the specific scope and context of each standardization organization. Furthermore, this chapter extends the use of social network analysis as a tool to the field of empirical standardization research. The results pave the way towards better collaboration in standardization communities of converging mobile internet and beyond by providing better visibility and new insights to standardization leaders, policy makers, and users.

Measuring the Deployment of Internet Protocols

Internet protocols and traffic are the foundation of the internet and reflect the on-going digital transformation in the society. Internet protocols spread to potential adopters through several successive phases of implementation, commercialization, acquisition, and adoption. This protocol deployment process involves several stakeholders and varies depending on the deployment environment and the protocol in question. This complexity and the lack of comprehensive measurement studies call for a further conceptualization of measuring protocol diffusion along the whole deployment process. Therefore, this chapter develops a framework for measuring the deployment of internet protocols, consisting of deployment steps, deployment models, deployment measures, and data sources. The illustrative results indicate that protocol deployment is driven by applications, and show the existence of large deployment gaps between the protocol possession and usage.

Impact of Industry Conditions on Innovation

This chapter underscores the importance of timing by focusing on the effect of pre-existing standards and regulations on the innovation and diffusion of new high-tech product innovations. The effect is assessed in terms of the time interval between the invention of a technological principle and the introduction of the first marketable product (development phase), and the successive time interval up to the start of large-scale industrial production and diffusion (adaptation phase). Fifty heterogeneous cases of new high-tech product innovations from 1850 onward are analysed. Results indicate that pre-existing standards and regulations significantly shorten the adaptation phase, an effect not found for the development phase. The shortening effect on the adaptation phase is particularly evident for more radical innovations and for innovations that are more interrelated with a larger technological system. This accelerating effect on the diffusion of innovations is highly relevant for innovation managers and policy makers alike.

A Method for Content Analysis of (Pre-)Standardization Activities

This chapter is aimed at developing a document content analysis method to be applied in studies of standardization and technology development. The proposed method integrates two theoretical frameworks: the co-evolutionary technology development framework and the “D-N-S” (design, negotiation, sense-making) framework for anticipatory standardization. At the backdrop of the complex and diversified landscape of science and R&D efforts in the technology domain, and the repeated criticism of the weak link between R&D initiatives and standardization, the authors argue that the method offered in this chapter helps better understand the internal dynamics of the technology development process at the early stage of standardization or pre-standardization, which, in turn, can help mobilize and direct the R&D initiatives. To demonstrate the practical usefulness of the proposed method, they conduct a content analysis of the research contributions presented in the COST Action IC0905 “Techno-Economic Regulatory Framework for Radio Spectrum Access for Cognitive Radio/ Software Defined Radio” (COST-TERRA).

Born Global Market Dominators and Implications for the Blockchain Avantgarde

Issues of dominance in the market place, “standards wars,” and “battles for dominance” between large companies are frequently addressed by researchers and the business press alike. The existence of companies that could establish internationally dominant solutions to customers' problems within a few years after their founding is quite unknown and the reasons for their success are hardly investigated so far. Therefore, they are not covered by traditional stage models for the establishment of dominant solutions. Presenting 22 cases and a new success factors model, this chapter shows how young companies can successfully establish their technologies as dominant solutions in the global market. Based on the studies' result, the authors then have a look at the groundbreaking IT invention of blockchain that is expected to disrupt many industries. The most prevalent success factors of the study are discussed along with the current blockchain innovation system. Their degree of significance for the success of international blockchain innovators is hypothesised for further empirical analyses.

Who Would Like to Develop ICT Standards?

Policy makers are promoting standardization activities because standardization can stimulate productivity and growth. To support these policies, a dedicated module of the community survey on ICT usage was designed to investigate the perception of Luxembourgish firms towards ICT standardization. Behaviours and intention of ICT standardization is investigated in two stages. A contingency analysis describes ICT standardization behaviours across industries and size classes. Second, a multivariate analysis identifies the features of firms interested in any area of ICT standardization. The econometric analysis shows that the typical firm that would like to develop ICT standards is active in the service industry, uses standards, is a government supplier, experiences moderate competition, and it is not a leader in its market. Interestingly, large and small firms are equally interested in ICT standardization. Specific policies aiming to provide resources to SMEs that would like but are not active in standardization are particularly advisable.

ICT Standards Management

This chapter explores opportunities to manage standards and standardization with a particular focus on the information and communication technologies (ICT) sector. It looks at the historical “management” of standards primarily in the United States, highlighting government and industrial approaches and the forces that have shaped the management process. It then turns to the current pressures and forces facing the management of ICT standards and standardization and makes some suggestions for activities that might enhance the management of standards.

Platform Leaders and Complementors' Strategic Management of Standards

In this chapter, the authors describe how companies strategically manage standards in complex products and systems. They explore how standards selection and adoption can leverage the position of a firm as a leader or complementor1 in a CoPS platform. The authors particularly review the platform leader's management of standards and question whether these standards are used to reinforce its leadership or not. Then, they adopt the complementor's viewpoint and question whether standards adoption and implementation constitute a vehicle for skills acquisition. In other words, the authors address two questions: Does standard selection constitute a strategy to strengthen leadership? Does standard adoption facilitate capability building for a complementor and enable it contesting an installed leadership?

Metastructuring for Standards

This chapter focusses on the appearance and implementation of process standards in software development organizations. The authors are interested in the way organizations handle the plurality of process standards. Organizations respond by metastructuring to the increasing demand for standardizing their development processes. Standards metastructuring summarizes all organizational mechanisms for facilitating the ongoing adaption of global standards to the organizational context. Based on an in-depth single case study of a software developing organization in the automotive technology sector, the authors found four areas of metastructuring, four roles for standard mediation, and four types of metastructuring activities. With the case study, they encourage further research that proves standards in use and how organizations respond to the challenges of standardization.

From Patent Hold-Up to Patent Hold-Out?

Patents are an efficient tool for companies contributing to the standardization process to recover investments made in the process and continue participating in future standardization efforts. However, to avoid abusive use of standard-essential patents (SEPs) incorporated in de jure standards, standardization contributors are required to make their SEPs available on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms and conditions (the [F]RAND commitment). This commitment has been created to fairly and adequately reward innovators while at the same time allow access to the standardized technology at (F)RAND terms and conditions; the latter preventing patent hold-up. With the changes in the cellphone market in the last ten years, the content of this (F)RAND commitment has been challenged in courts and in front of antitrust authorities. The question is whether this duty, set up to avoid hold-up, is not used by some implementers to engage in hold-out.