Trends in ICT standards: The relationship between European standardisation bodies and standards consortia

Theoretical analyses have dealt with the relationship between standardisation activities in formal standardisation bodies and in standards consortia. However, the empirical evidence is rather weak. Besides various case studies, there is no broad and quantitative approach for examining the relationship between formal and informal standardisation processes. This paper quantifies the standardisation activities in information and communication technology (ICT) of formal and informal standardisation bodies by utilising the database PERINORM containing formal standards and by analysing two CEN/ISSS surveys of standardisation consortia in 2000 and 2004. The two major insights gained are that the technical content of activities of formal and informal standardisation bodies is complementary rather than substitutive, which means most technical issues are addressed by both formal standardisation bodies and standardisation consortia. In addition, there has been a consolidation of consortia activities through a significant reduction in the number of consortia. However, this reduction has not changed the distribution of consortia activities by technical fields and complementary relations with the activities of formal standardisation bodies. Based on these new insights, some challenges emerge both for future theoretical analysis of decisions on standardisation types and for ICT policy regarding the interaction between standardisation and technical regulation and the role of standards in public procurement.     

Societal and ethical impacts of artificial intelligence: Critical notes on European policy frameworks

This paper offers a critical review on conditions and impacts of AI/ML in society, with a dedicated overview of the European AI policy framework. Through the analysis of policy papers produced by European institutions, European national governments and other organisations situated between research and policy-making, we bring an overarching outlook of key ethical and societal issues currently under discussion at the intersection of European policy agendas and recent literature on the topic. Our findings show that 21 analysed documents look both at individual and societal impacts, with their understanding generally aligned in calls for more responsibility, accountability, transparency, safety or trust. Furthermore, our findings also point to the necessity of more integrated approaches between governments, industry and academia stakeholders, and above all, to the need of applied multidisciplinary frameworks, supported by both anticipatory outlooks and public engagement exercises able to tackle the often excessive technicality of the debate.     

Role of formal standards in transition to the technology frontier: Korean ICT systems

According to traditional wisdom, latecomer countries improve their technological capabilities in reverse of the product cycle, that is from mature towards new technologies. However, improvement of standards capabilities in this process has not been revealed clearly. This paper confirms similar patterns for improving formal standards capabilities as for the technological capabilities, but records some possible differences in the rate of catch-up when latecomers approach the technology frontier; a forward moving position where technology leaders (typically advanced countries) develop or conceptualize new technologies before being turned into products or systems. A number of case studies of South Korean ICT systems reveal that transition to the technological frontier is increasingly related to how they target and carry out formal standardization. The common elements driving differences in rates of successful catch-up for ICT systems standards are not only limited to generic standards capabilities, but also rely on characteristics of technology trajectories, national strategic focus, and organizing for standardization.³ This implies that a nation should not be discouraged by slow progress in standards-setting during earlier stages. Once a minimum level of capabilities is achieved, a nation pro-active in standards from the beginning may attain higher rates of catch-up near the technology frontier.     

How do standards committees affect the success of a standard? Comparative analysis of RCS and VoLTE and proposed hybrid standards development model of open and bandwagon approaches

Standards have become enablers of complex digital systems that provide a foundation for the present-day digital economy. While existing literature analyzes the factors behind the dominance of one standard over another, there has been little focus on the standards committees that define the standards. This study comparatively analyzes the case of the Rich Communication Services (RCS) and Voice over LTE (VoLTE) standards to examine the characteristics of standards committees. The findings provide lessons learned for standards committees, including non-tiered open membership, and sufficient depth of specifications. Most importantly, a new model is proposed for standards development, based on which the standards committee focuses on technical specifications with open membership, while industry consortia focus on commercial profiling of the technical specifications with the lead of influential players. The new model is expected to resolve the tradeoff between the development speed and stability of communications standards.     

以贯彻新会计准则为契机，提高会计信息质量

新的会计准则施行后,对会计信息质量的提高起到极大的促进作用。指出目前制约会计信息质量的因素主要有公司治理结构的缺陷、会计信息失真带来的收益与损失不对称、剥离与模拟等会计创新的负面影响等,分析了新会计准则。对于提高会计信息质量的要求。基于此,提出了现阶段提高会计信息质量的几点措施。     

Private voluntary standards in the food system: The perspective of major food retailers in OECD countries

The paper examines the main economic and institutional incentives which have driven major OECD food retailers in their use of private voluntary standards and discusses their growing role in shaping the agri-food system. It is based on interviews with quality and safety directors of major OECD retailers and a brief survey of retailers’ actual buyer practices. Though not all retailers are included, these firms account for over 70% of retail food sales in OECD countries. We find that the growing voice of civil society, changing legal and institutional frameworks, increased market concentration and buying power as well as their integration with financial markets has provided the setting for development of private standards. While food safety and quality standards are seen as key to maintaining and improving reputation as well as against legal liabilities, additional standards such as labour, environmental and animal welfare are also gaining ground as strategies for customer loyalty and market shares. The grass-roots retailer move in the harmonization of food safety standards is seen as an initial step towards a global approach to managing the food system, with harmonization of other standards likely in the future. Given their buyer power, these developments can be viewed as a way of governing the food system and will be important for both OECD and non-OECD food and agricultural sector evolution in the coming years.     

Shouldn't Customers Control Customized Product Development?

Nowadays, customized product development (CPD) is increasingly prevalent in business‐to‐business settings, which has motivated manufacturers into development approaches wherein the customer plays an active role. When the customer is merely viewed as a passive receiver of the customized product, the manufacturer won't be able to truly empathize with the customer and might lack important suggestions to create and improve the customized product. It is, after all, the customer that holds pertinent development information and/or expertise. Yet, customers are not always motivated to participate and often need to be convinced about the manufacturer's ability to develop customized products in a timely and cost‐effective manner. Prior literature on interorganizational relationships suggests the use of formal control, i.e., process and/or output control, to fashion activities in line with expectations so that development goals can be attained. Thereupon, this study posits that the customer's use of such formal controls may stimulate customer participation in CPD. In addition, this study investigates whether manufacturers can indeed benefit from customer participation in CPD through improved new product performance. To accomplish the research objectives, survey‐based and accounting data are collected on 63 collaborative CPD projects between a plastics manufacturer and its industrial customers. In conjunction with an add‐on experimental study regarding the effect of formal control on customer participation, this study reveals that the customer's use of formal control significantly increases the level of customer participation in CPD. Additionally, this study confirms that customer participation positively impacts new product performance. Together, these results imply that letting the customer use process and/or output control helps the customer to believe more in the pursuit of CPD goals and successful product customization, thereby encouraging the customer to participate more actively in CPD. Besides, the findings imply that increased access to market and customer need‐related information obtained through customer participation is indeed critical for successful CPD.     

Globalisation of food quality standards: the impact in Greece

Globalisation is the global integration of standardised markets and has significant implications for Greece, a small European country distant from the main centres of world capital. Greece does however occupy a key position in the Balkan peninsula at the Eastern end of the Mediterranean. The paper commences by identifying the interpretation of the concept of globalisation and its effect on food quality standards. It subsequently attempts to sharpen understanding of the concept by considering concrete instances in which it has affected the Greek food industry. The paper concludes by suggesting an analytical framework for Greek institutions, legislators and policymakers addressing issues on standardisation.     

新会计准则对上市公司所得税税负影响研究

新会计准则与原会计准则相比有很大变化,特别是公允价值的广泛采用和资产负债表债务法的运用,会影响企业应缴所得税和实际所得税税负。本文从分析企业财务因素入手,分别以上市公司全部行业和制造业为样本,运用多元线性回归的方法,检验主要财务因素与公司实际税负的关系,得出执行新会计准则降低了上市公司平均所得税税负的研究结论。     

The ‘China’ question in mobile Internet standard-making: Insights from expert interviews

This article explores the actions of Chinese stakeholders as norm entrepreneurs in mobile Internet standard-making within the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). Through semi-structured interviews with key experts from the Internet stakeholder communities, this article contextualises a rapidly transforming and increasingly politicised issue in the broader context of China's engagement with the global multistakeholder Internet governance architecture, as well as the debate on China's rise in the Liberal International Order. Furthermore, it incorporates the views and experiences of technologists working first-hand in standard-making, as they are often disregarded in political-scientific literature. Through the analytical lens of cognitivist regime theory, this article argues that the stronger China and Chinese stakeholders grow economically and politically, the more they become involved in the existing Internet governance regime complex, increasing their influence in the existing institutional arrangements without necessarily acting for changing their norms, rules, and principles. Through these theoretical and methodological approaches, new light is shed on the role of private and public Chinese stakeholders and on the relation between them.     

基于ERP的企业贯标整合管理研究

从企业贯标认证发展的现状出发,首先通过对企业贯标过程中存在的问题和弊端的分析,提出了对企业贯标进行整合管理的必要性和可能性;其次通过对现存的贯标整合管理理论的总结,提出了一种以ERP先进技术和管理理念为基础的企业贯标整合管理的解决方案,旨在解决企业在不同贯标体系下存在的跨体系和跨部门管理上的难题,同时这种解决方案也能够实现企业内部人、财、物和信息等资源的共享,以达到企业贯标整合的目的。     

国内外钻井工程标准对比分析

对我国钻井国家标准、行业标准,ISO(国际标准化组织)和国外先进标准,包括API(美国石油学会)、IADC(国际钻井承包商协会)标准,全面系统地进行了对比分析,研究了标准项目涵盖范围、标准的具体内容,找出我国钻井标准与国际国外先进标准的差别与不足。建议我国重视标准的修订、钻井新技术标准的制定和及时采标工作,这对我国钻井工程标准的完善有着重要指导作用。     

采标--企业发展的基石

通过中国海油的成长与标准化的深入开展之间的关系，说明标准化工作总是和企业的发展相辅相成、相互促进的，标准是企业发展的基础，采标是基础中的基石。论述了中国海油从不自觉到自觉的采用国际标准或国外先进标准，保证了其在对外合作的过程中不断地发展和壮大过程；论证了直接采用国际标准或国外先进标准是提高企业的素质，培养和锻炼队伍，获取反承包项目，加快对外合作的步伐所必须的，直接采标是中国海油建立现代企业的基石；论述了随着中国海油的发展壮大，经验的积累，在采标的基础上，根据企业的实际需要、国情和环境条件，开始着手自行制定符合国际惯例的标准，或对双采标准进行谨慎和微小的修改；由双采标准和自行制定的标准共同构成了中国海油企业标准体系，它是中国海油发展壮大的基础，已经发挥着并将继续发挥着其不可替代的作用。     

First among Equals: The Effect of Team Leader Characteristics on the Internal Dynamics of Cross‐Functional Product Development Teams*

Drawing on the path‐goal theory of leadership, the present study examines the effect of team leader characteristics on an array of conflict resolution behavior, collaboration, and communication patterns of cross‐functional new product development (NPD) teams. A hierarchical linear model analysis based on a survey of 246 members from 64 NPD teams suggests that participative management style and initiation of goal structure by the team leader exert the strongest influence on internal team dynamics. Both these leadership characteristics had a positive effect on functional conflict resolution, collaboration, and communication quality within the NPD team while discouraging dysfunctional conflict resolution and formal communications. Comparatively, team leader's consideration, initiation of process structure, and position had a surprisingly weak effect on internal team dynamics. Further, the findings underscore the differential effects on various dimensions of team dynamics, the importance of controlling for project and team characteristics, and the use of multilevel modeling for studying nested phenomena related to NPD teams. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

Global Labour‐Standards Advocacy by European Civil Society Organizations: Trends and Developments

In recent years, developments in intergovernmental organizations and transnational private governance organizations have created new opportunities and constraints for the promotion of global labour‐standards governance by civil society organizations (CSOs). This article describes how European CSOs (including trade union organizations and non‐governmental organizations (NGOs)) respond to these developments. It argues that European civil society is witnessing a threefold shift in priorities of labour‐standards advocacy: from pushing regulatory approaches to organizational capacity building; from corporate responsibility strategies focused on compliance to strategies focused on transparency; and from fair labour standards within the sustainable development agenda to a host of other issues. The overall result is that labour‐standards advocacy in general and private labour governance in particular are receiving less attention from European CSOs.     

Do private standards create exclusive supply chains? New evidence from the Peruvian asparagus export sector

Developing countries are increasingly exporting fresh horticultural products to high-income countries. These exports increasingly have to comply with stringent public and private standards, as well as other quality and safety issues. There is an ongoing debate on the effect of private standards on the inclusion of small-scale farmers in export supply chains. With this paper, we contribute to this debate by providing new evidence from the Peruvian asparagus export sector, and by addressing several important methodological shortcomings and gaps in the existing literature. We describe export dynamics using a unique firm level dataset on 567 asparagus export firms from 1993 to 2011 and the evolution of certification to private standards using own survey data from a stratified random sample of 87 export firms. We use an unbalanced panel of the surveyed companies on 19 years and several methods, including fixed effects and GMM estimators, to estimate the causal impact of certification to private standards on companies' sourcing strategy. We find that certification leads to vertical integration and significantly reduces the share of produce that is sourced from external producers, with a larger effect for small-scale producers. When distinguishing between production and processing standards, and between low-level and high-level standards, we find that especially high-level production standards have a negative impact on sourcing from (small-scale) producers.     

Status of development,regulation and adoption of GM agriculture in Africa: Views and positions of stakeholder groups

The use of genetically modified (GM) crop technology in tackling food security problems and poverty reduction in Africa continues to generate debates over its benefits and safety. Only four countries, South Africa, Sudan, Burkina Faso and Egypt have commercialized GM crops in Africa but controversy surrounds current cultivation of GM maize in Egypt. Our study provides new perspectives on the status, development and regulation of GM crops through examining the views of 305 stakeholders in six African countries across four regions: South Africa, Kenya (East Africa), Egypt and Tunisia (North Africa), Ghana and Nigeria (West Africa), supplemented by interviews with relevant international organizations. The study revealed the challenges leading to the development of biosafety regulatory frameworks and the role of individual stakeholders in the facilitation of GM crops across African countries. This study also revealed that some countries may go through a Fiber–Feed–Food (F3) approach to adopt GM crops where Bt cotton will be adopted first followed by GM crops for livestock feed while undergoing all the necessary assessments before producing GM foods for human consumption. An overwhelming majority of stakeholders placed emphasis on risk analysis (risk assessment and management) in view of limited capacity, lack of scientific expertise and public concern, and encouraged a centralized approach to risk assessment similar to the European Union model of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA).     

Use of blockchain in the agri-food value chain: State of the art in Spain and some lessons from the perspective of public support.

The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) of the European Union, in effect since January 2023, seeks to differentiate products on quality, provide greater transparency on food origin, and on the transactions and the actors involved in the supply chain. At the same time, in Spain, the adoption of new technologies for the digitization of the agri-food sector has been proposed as a solution to address structural issues such as lack of competitiveness and innovation. In fact, systems using blockchain-related technologies for food control and traceability have seen great progress in recent years and, currently, the use of blockchain in supply chain management is almost doubling year on year. In this context, this paper investigates the level of development of blockchain technology in the agri-food sector in Spain and its applications for certifying food production conditions within the supply chain, and how it is supported by public policies. It identifies several challenges that need to be addressed for a widespread adoption could take place, such as data recorded on the blockchain, lack of standards, limited scope of projects, and integration of data capture automatically or with other technologies like RFID and AI. The document proposes to reorient public development policies to address these challenges, such as reusing data from, already in place, European data collections for production control and food traceability, educating users and stakeholders about the use of blockchain technology, and fostering legal and technical provisions which ensure system transparency to facilitate a successful implementation of blockchain.     

Modified Stage‐Gate® Regimes in New Product Development*

The purpose of this research was to explore the nature of the Stage‐Gate^®process in the context of innovative projects that not only vary in new product technology (i.e., radical versus incremental technology) but that also involve significant new product development technology (i.e., new virtual teaming hardware‐software systems). Results indicate that firms modify their formal development regimes to improve the efficiency of this process while not significantly sacrificing product novelty (i.e., the degree to which new technology is incorporated in the new offering). Four hypotheses were developed and probed using 72 automotive engineering managers involved in supervision of the new product development process. There was substantial evidence to creatively replicate results from previous benchmarking studies; for example, 48.6% of respondents say their companies used a traditional Stage‐Gate^®process, and 60% of these new products were considered to be a commercial success. About a third of respondents said their companies are now using a modified Stage‐Gate^®process for new product development. Auto companies that have modified their Stage‐Gate^®procedures are also significantly more likely to report (1) use of virtual teams; (2) adoption of collaborative and virtual new product development software supporting tools; (3) having formalized strategies in place specifically to guide the new product development process; and (4) having adopted structured processes used to guide the new product development process. It was found that the most significant difference in use of phases or gates in the new product development process with radical new technology occurs when informal and formal phasing processes are compared, with normal Stage‐Gate^®usage scoring highest for technology departures in new products. Modified Stage‐Gate^®had a significant, indirect impact on organizational effectiveness. These findings, taken together, suggest companies optimize trade‐offs between cost and quality after they graduate from more typical stage‐process management to modified regimes. Implications for future research and management of this challenging process are discussed. In general, it was found that the long‐standing goal of 50% reduction in product development time without sacrificing other development goals (e.g., quality, novelty) is finally within practical reach of many firms. Innovative firms are not just those with new products but also those that can modify their formal development process to accelerate change.     

The Impact of Front‐End Innovation Activities on Product Performance

This paper describes and tests a model of the impact of front‐end innovation activities on product performance. Data were collected from 272 companies to test the hypothesis that front‐end performance impacts new product performance in the marketplace while controlling for new product development (NPD) processes and strategy. The data support the hypothesis that front‐end performance favorably and independently impacts overall product success, time to market, market penetration, and financial performance. Front‐end performance is predicted by a set of activities, including: the actual amount of front‐end work done in various areas, specifically marketing, R&D, and concept development; the existence of a front‐end process; the existence of a champion; and agreement on the order of developmental steps in the front end. Front‐end activities are related to front‐end performance, and front‐end performance is related to NPD performance. This relationship highlights the distinction between front‐end activities and standard product development practices and the importance of building competency in the front end. This is the first study that quantifies both the nature and amount of work done in the front end and relates that work to commercial performance. This research empirically demonstrates the distinction between the front‐end and formal stages and gates types of systems. This suggests that the concept of the front end needs it own set of theoretical constructs to adequately describe and predict this categorically different set of activities. While this study demonstrates the difference between front‐end and stage‐gate systems, it does not establish the limits of those activities. From a managerial point of view recognizing that formal development and front‐end activities are different mandates that these activities must be managed differently. In particular, the skills, structures, processes, governance, leadership, performance metrics, and resources must be assessed separately and differently. These findings suggest that firms should actively manage the flow of ideas from the front end into the more formal development programs.