Managing the Standardization Knowledge Codification Paradox

In a connected society and organizations working with digitized business models, standards will have more important roles than ever in shaping activity systems content, structure, and governance. While the standardization conformity/innovation duality has received great attention in literature, little research has been done on the role of managers in managing the tensions of knowledge codification required during ISO 9001 standard implementation. By utilizing Danone's Networking Attitude experience as a case study, the authors address this gap by exploring how managerial skills and practices were used to overcome the cognitive and emotional tensions related to internal knowledge codification, transfer, and use. The main contribution is to elucidate the role of managers in resolving these paradoxes and creating innovation capabilities. Further, they demonstrate the mutually beneficial relationship between knowledge codification and innovation if knowledge management is approached more as an evolving pragmatic knowing than a technical means that may create rigidity and resistance.

Investigating Assessment Standards in the Netherlands, Italy, and the United Kingdom

The following contribution asks which role standards for research information play in practices of responsible research evaluation. The authors develop the notion of assessment standards against the background of functional standard classifications. The development of semantic and procedural assessment standards in the national research evaluation exercises of the Netherlands, Great Britain, and Italy are investigated using a qualitative case study design. A central finding of the study is that assessment standards incorporate conflicting values. A continuous tradeoff between the transparency of evaluation procedures and provided information as well as the variety of research outputs is being counterbalanced in all countries by compensating a higher level of semantic standardization with lower degrees of procedural standardization.

Technology Transfer to Least Developed Countries Through Global Standards

For the economic growth in least developed countries (LDCs), the transfer of technical and scientific know-how is an uncontested necessity. Poverty and underdevelopment in LDCs are interrelated features. Technology transfers may fail, however, unless varied constraints are taken into account. The focus of this study is on obstacles to an efficient technology transfer to LDCs, and on the major role which global, bilingual standards can play in this process. The global standards setting organizations International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) have recognized the need for a general, comprehensive, and effective support of the LDCs' bodies for national quality infrastructure (NQI). Standardization is not only a vital socio-economic function in itself, but standards represent part of much wider, essential infrastructures. Three stakeholder groups are particularly concerned: the users of the global standards in LDCs, the global standards setting organizations, and the individual National Quality Infrastructure bodies.

Individual Participation in Standards Setting

Since standardization is essential and additionally has organizational effects, studying motivation for participating in the standardization processes is important. A phenomenological study of descriptions made by individual participants in project teams for geographical information at the Swedish Standards Institute, SIS, was conducted 2016-2017. The study indicated that participants were motivated, but there were different motivators depending on the participants' differing contexts. For most participants, the main personal meaningful goal was to be at the forefront of development. For participants employed by organizations with frequent interactions with stakeholders, the main personal meaningful goal was to satisfy the stakeholders' needs. This study also showed that several members felt that they do not have sufficient time for working with standardization asks due to the fact that their daily work in their organizations often has higher priority in relation to standardization work. This may slow down the development of standards and other publications due to lack of resources.

Fostering the Participation of Companies in Standardization

Standardization is one source of informal rules that regulate the public realm: standards are not legally-binding, but, as soft law instruments, they influence the governance, ethics, and conduct of companies. Standardization brings unique benefits to companies in term of knowledge, credibility, and risk reduction by bringing accountability and predictability. To foster active participation of companies in standardization, higher and continuous education in standardization is essential to build mutual understanding between companies and the standardization world since decision making in the former is a relatively quick top-down hierarchical process while in the latter time-consuming consensus-building is the norm. The concept of Student Standardization Societies (SSS) is introduced as the best way to promote standardization in the long term, and advice is given for the practical implementation of SSS and their relationship with Official Standardization Organizations.

Participation in the Standards Organizations Developing the Internet of Things

This chapter explores patterns and recent trends in meeting attendance at four standard development organizations (SDO): 3GPP, IETF, IEEE 802.11, and One M2M. Average meeting attendance has slightly increased over the last two decades. It is rare for individuals to attend meetings in different SDOs. IETF has the least attendee overlap with other SDOs and the lowest attendee affiliation concentration. Nevertheless, 3GPP attendance has become more diverse and IETF attendance more concentrated. The affiliations of attendees of 3GPP and IETF have become more similar over time while OneM2M attendance has become more distinct from other SDOs. IEEE 802.11 attendance has become significantly less diverse since 2007. Until 2014, there was a significant convergence with 3GPP. Since 2014, this trend has reversed, and attendance at IEEE 802.11 has become more similar to IETF. The author explores implications of the described evidence for differences between telecommunications and internet standardization, companies' standardization strategies, and consequences of the patent policy change at IEEE.

Creation of an ISO Standard at the Example of Value Stream Management Method

The main objectives of this chapter are to elucidate the necessity of a standardized value stream management (VSM) and to clarify how this standard can effectively increase corporate performance within cross-enterprise supply chain networks (SCNs). VSM is an effective tool to collect, evaluate, and continuously improve product and information flows within companies in a common and standardized manner. The findings of this chapter are not only valid for consistent product and information flows but are representative for the relevance of standards in general. In a globalized economy, standards need to be generally accepted and valid for all countries. Thus, corporate or national standards only have limited impact. The International Standardization Organization (ISO) provides the means to develop, negotiate and communicate standards, which are globally binding. This chapter shares the experience of ISO 22468 standard development within ISO/TC 154 WG7 and proves its applicability by an administrative use case.

The Standardisation of Natural Capital Accounting Methodologies

The global ecological crisis has prompted the development of tools that try to redefine relations between business and nature, among them, natural capital accounting methodologies. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) recently set standards on which these methodologies are based. Other actors, including the Big Four audit and accounting firms, developed their own methodologies outside the scope of ISO. This chapter examines why and how ISO developed natural capital accounting standards that are likely to compete with other methodologies. From the assumption that standards are not just technical, but also political instruments, it argues that they shape the future by creating power relations between actors within and outside ISO. The chapter suggests that these ISO standards aims at competing with first-movers' methodologies, in particular on the power implications resulting from transparency. It builds the argument on international political economy approaches to emphasise the link between technical specifications and power relations in contemporary capitalism.

E-Commerce in the EU

E-commerce has several advantages for customers and improves firm productivity. The research aims to examine factors determining the usage of e-commerce within the EU with the focus on problems related to standards. This includes especially a lack of interoperability and labelling problems. Firstly, the authors found rising popularity of online purchases in recent years. Despite the increase, Visegrad countries are still lagging behind the EU average. A similar increase is also evident in e-commerce engagement as well as in turnover from e-commerce. Furthermore, they also estimated logit regressions to find factors affecting the probability of firm engagement in e-commerce. Interoperability problems, when selling online, are more frequently reported by wholesale firms as well as those in the information and communication sector. The majority of firms in our sample stated that common rules of e-commerce within the EU could be beneficial. This is particularly important for those reporting problems with interoperability and different labelling.

Does Innovation Flourish With the Implementation of Certified Management Systems?

Existing literature states that standardization and certification are not only crucial for enterprises, but they have a positive impact on productivity, international trade, innovation, and competition as well. This research employs data derived by the European Innovation Union Scoreboard and the International Standardization Organization from 2005 to 2014 to investigate the relation between innovation and certified quality management systems according to ISO 9001. Using suitable panel data analysis, the authors analyse the data gathered form a panel accounting for the different countries and different years. The main result of this study is that we are able to provide evidence to policymakers, academics, and entrepreneurs that there is a statistically significant relationship between innovation and certified quality management systems. The originality of this chapter stems from the fact that up to now, to the authors' knowledge, the impact of ISO 9001 on innovation has not been examined in the European context.