Towards Standardizing Success: RFID in Fashion Retailing

During the last decade, many companies considered to implement RFID technology in their supply chains. They had to choose from a variety of largely incompatible RFID systems and therefore demanded RFID standardization. Only common RFID systems along the supply chain were expected to deliver the substantial benefits. This paper describes the RFID pilot and roll-out by German fashion retailer Kaufhof and analyzes Kaufhof\u27s role in the RFID standard-making process. It finds that (1) arguments concerning the RFID standard-making process partially deviate from the common public goods argument in the literature, (2) early involvement in standard-making mitigates a company\u27s risk of future property right allegations, and (3) a third-party mediated standard-making process, rather than a vendor-promoted one, delivers feasible and compatible standards. The paper concludes with a summary and an outlook to future research

Language Selection Policies in International Standardization – Perception of the IEC Member Countries

International standards setting organizations have different language selection policies. These policies have, besides their financial aspects, also an important cultural/ political dimension. The standards setting organizations are either bilingual (English/ French), or unilingual (English), or multilingual (English, French and further languages). We have investigated the references of the 65 national members of the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). The main findings are a moderate preference for the use of both English and French for the technical work, and a strong preference for the use of English only for communication.. The obvious dominance of the English language is seen as a necessity, rather than an indication of a hypothetical Anglo-American linguistic/ cultural imperialism. Finally, some conclusions regarding language selection policies in international standards setting organizations are presented

Standardisation education

The importance of standardisation is growing. This might be reflected in a growth of standardisation education. In this paper we will elaborate on education in the field of standardisation

An Investigation of W3C Standardization Processes using Rational Discourse

Standards, in particular Web standards, have become critical and complex information technologies as they influence our everyday activities. Standards making is a social practice where in experts engage in discussions to develop standards by weighing various alternative design solutions. Processes followed to develop these standards and how decisions for core features are made are not well understood. In this paper, we have drawn on concepts of rational discourse described by Habermas to examine whether processes followed at W3C meets requirements of rational discourse. Our investigation shows that processes followed at W3C do exhibit an approximation of rational discourse, while some concerns exist

Digital Product-Service Systems:The Role of Data in the Transition to Servitization Business Models

The Circular Economy, as a guiding model for business processes, is attracting interest due to its potential for aligning business and societal goals as it offers companies the opportunity to simultaneously focus on economic value creation and on the mitigation of environmental damage. It is becoming increasingly clear that digital technologies are an essential component of this model as they enable transparency and efficiency in closing material and energy cycles. Additionally, digitalization leads to efficient business models that revolve around adapting the value proposition to the insights gained from the continual analysis of data, shifting the emphasis of Product-Service Systems towards the service end of the spectrum. As such, these new business models are categorized as forms of Servitization. Despite the increasing importance of Servitization and digitalizing business processes, such as the move towards what is referred to as Industry 4.0 in the manufacturing industry, the associated transition towards widespread adoption of the principles of the Circular Economy is slow. This explorative study investigates key themes and challenges in transitioning towards digitally-enabled Servitization in the manufacturing industry and the relationship with the Circular Economy. Through interviews with experts from the realms of digital technology, Industry 4.0, and business sustainability, a set of research questions is developed that forms a research agenda

Globalization and Standards: The Logic of Two-Level Game

The emergence of a global information architecture has fueled regulatory competition among nations and regions to set information and communication technology (“ICT”) standards. Such regulatory competition can be thought of as a two level game: level one is competition to set ICT standards within a nation or region; level two is competition to set the global ICT standards with reference to local standards. The United States and the European Union are global leaders in setting ICT standards, and compete to set global ICT standards based on different local regulatory cultures: the U.S. is a “liberal market economy” (“LME”) within which informal standard developing processes are perceived as legitimate, while formal standard developing processes are perceived as legitimate within the “coordinated market economies” (“CME”) that tend to dominate EU regulation. In recent decades, informal ICT standard setting organizations (“SDOs”) known as consortia, which are more narrowly focused and less transparent than traditional SDOs have emerged in the U.S. and have come to dominate global ICT regulatory competition. Standards for Radio Frequency Identifiers (“RFID”) provide an example that illustrates this trend. EU regulators now are considering what changes may be needed in the EU system of harmonizing standards and EU regulation in order to reverse this trend. If EU regulators succeed in engaging with selected ICT standards consortia, this might permit CME regulation to prevail over LME regulation in competition to set global ICT standards

Clash of the Titans: Regulating the Competition Between Established and Emerging Electronic Payment Systems

This article equates the providers of traditional electronic payment services with the Titans of Greek mythology, and the providers of new electronic payment technologies with the Olympians. Professor Winn concludes, however, that unlike the Titans of Greek mythology, these modern Titans appear to be winning in their battle with the upstart Olympians. This article describes the fundamental characteristics of payment systems, reviews the applicable law, and describes the new technologies that were, until quite recently, expected to displace older electronic payment systems. Professor Winn finds that consumers and merchants, by and large, are happy with the existing regulatory structure. And, because of the failure of new technologies to gain significant market share yet, regulators have not yet been obliged to revise existing regulations to take account of these new technologies