The influence of diversity and size of standard setting organisations and standards consortia on standard success

Abstract

Standardisation plays a crucial role in driving long-term productivity, competitive growth, and innovation in various industries. Its primary objective is to streamline processes by establishing consensus among different stakeholders, such as firms, users, academia and governments. Standards provide classifications such as quality, compatibility, safety, or measurements to ensure that products and procedures meet specific requirements and can be reliably used across different domains. In spite of the importance of standardisation, there is a lot to learn about the factors that influence standard success. As of now, literature in this field is mostly exploratory in nature. This study investigates the factors influencing the success of standardisation efforts, in particular, it examines the impact of technological diversity and geographical diversity within standard setting organisations (SSOs) or standards consortia on achieving standard success. Additionally, the study explores the role of the size of these SSOs or standards consortia in influencing the likelihood of standard success. Next to that, the influence of the definition of standard success is also examined, by providing three different theoretical definitions for standard success. This study adds on to the literature by providing larger scale qualitative research in an attempt to better understand the dynamics of standard success. In this study an original dataset was created of standards consortia in the context of Renewable Energy (RE) and Sustainability, Efficiency, and Green Initiatives (SEG). The chosen context is significant for addressing the global climate problem, a complex and multifaceted wicked problem that requires collaborative efforts. Therefore, the understanding of which factors influence the success of standards is essential to tackle climate change's adverse impacts. Standards are important in providing universal guidelines, products and protocols that are needed to combat climate change. The results indicate the presence of a U-shaped relationship between technological diversity and standards success, this result has not yet been found earlier and implies that instead of an optimum range of diversity, managers should to be at either extreme end of the technological diversity spectrum. Moreover, we observe a positive relationship between consortium size and standard success, meaning that whenever possible, managers should aim to increase consortium size. This study provides a better understanding of how the characteristics of standards consortia influence standard success which can also aid managers in making well-educated choices when setting up standards consortia.