Materials for academic teaching on standardisation

This paper describes the development of a repository of publications and other materials that can be used for academic teaching about standardisation. It includes a description of main characteristics of the materials, and discusses priorities for development of additional materials

Applying legal principles to stimulate open standards: the role of forums and consortia

In this paper it is argued that openness in standards raises its quality level. This study is done not only from a technical business administration point of view but also from a legal perspective. It is shown that applying legal principles, in particular the principles of Good Governance can stimulate openness in standards. With these it appears that the distinction between official SDOs and other forums and consortia is irrelevant in achieving openness. The setting of this study is illustrated by two practical standardization cases in which openness plays an important role. The results are applied to the important standardization challenge in the upcoming world of Smart Grids

The rise of MP3 as the market standard: How data compression formats came to dominate the music industry

Previous research has shown how various technologies became the market standard. This paper presents some refined models and applies them to the case of audio compression formats. We provide an analysis of the rise of MP3 as the market standard and identify several key factors that contributed to the success of the format. First, a process of formal standardization resulted in a reduced level of competition at an early stage. Enabling technologies, in particular the rise of the Internet, had a huge contribution to the success of audio compression formats. The timing of market entry was key in the sense that when the rise of the Internet took place, MP3 was one of the few fully developed codecs. MP3 offered technological superiority (high fidelity at low data rate) versus its initial competitors. The technology also benefitted from dedicated sponsors that promoted market adoption. Due to the weak regime of appropriability audio files in the MP3 format managed to spread quickly over the Internet. Lastly, the availability of complementary assets for MP3 fuelled its market adoption and strengthend network externalities on both sides of the two-sided network

Standardization: Towards an agenda for research

Standardization research is a fairly new and is a still-evolving field of research, with possibly major practical ramifications. This article presents a summary of the authors’ subjective views of the most pressing research topics in the field. These include, among others, standards (e.g. incorporation of ethical issues), the potential impact of standards, the corporate management of standardization and legal issues like Intellectual Property Rights (IPR). In addition, gaps have been identified with a respect to a basic understanding of standardization, suggesting a need for better education in the field.status: publishe

Standardization – Towards an Agenda for Research

Standardization research is a fairly new and is a still-evolving field of research, with possibly major practical ramifications. This article presents a summary of the authors' subjective views of the most pressing research topics in the field. These include, among others, standards (e.g. incorporation of ethical issues), the potential impact of standards, the corporate management of standardization and legal issues like Intellectual Property Rights (IPR). In addition, gaps have been identified with a respect to a basic understanding of standardization, suggesting a need for better education in the field.Economics of Technology and Innovatio