Shaping user-side innovation through standardisation: The example of ICT

This paper looks at the relations that exist between standardisation and user-side innovation in ICT. Some necessary background information are followed by a discussion of how standards and user-side innovations are shaped. A mutual influence between standardisation and innovation can be identified. To avoid the emergence of standards that are beneficial only for a handful of users a co-ordinated representation of users in standards setting is suggested.     

Globalisation,indigenous innovation and national strategy: comparing China and India's wireless standardisation

This comparative case study investigates the contrasting approaches to telecommunications standard-setting adopted by two developing countries, China and India, using the 3G standard as a case study. Despite facing comparable opportunities in the form of fast-growing markets, and comparable challenges in terms of meeting consumer demand and fostering industrial development, the two countries adopted sharply different standards strategies, with China investing heavily in its home-grown Time Division Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access standard, and India allowing operators to choose any international standard. In this paper, we trace the antecedents of this divergence to the different policy approaches that the two countries adopted to their respective electronics industries in the early to mid-1990s.     

Mediating and catalysing innovation: A framework for anticipating the standardisation needs of emerging technologies

The development of technology strategies are often supported by strategic frameworks. Although standards can be critical in fostering technological innovation, particularly by supporting knowledge diffusion, their importance is often neglected by commonly used strategic frameworks. This paper presents a framework which uses the knowledge that needs to transition between key anticipated innovation activities to anticipate potential standardisation needs for emerging technologies. The framework draws attention to strategic considerations and dimensions that might otherwise be overlooked, including different types of standards; standardisation stakeholders; the alignment, coordination, and sequencing of standards; and how these all change over time. A technology roadmapping based framework was used because it explicitly characterises the alignment, coordination, and sequencing of innovation activities (over time) and can be configured to draw out information against the other above strategic considerations and dimensions. The principles and utility of the framework are demonstrated in three contrasting case studies: synthetic biology, additive manufacturing, and smart grid. These show how standards mediate between innovation actors by codifying and diffusing knowledge and can enhance and catalyse innovation. The proposed framework can be used to reveal where standards might be used to support innovation, better characterise the types of standards needed, identify the stakeholders needed to develop them, and highlight any potential alignment, coordination, and sequencing issues related to standardisation activities.     

Mobile service innovation: A European failure

The continuing absence of innovation in Europe’s mobile services industry is identified and characterised here, with such examples as mobile Internet and mobile music. Innovation failure is a critical factor leading to a lack of high-income jobs, network effects, and price reductions for data services. Most mobile service innovations have been made in Japan in ‘clubs of operators’ with their suppliers. Apple USA followed the same model of control with its iPhone. Conversely, a lack of this critical type of competition characterises European operators. Revenues per citizen are in some countries similar to those in Japan, but with handsets with less functions. Europe and all other regions face the challenge of competing with Japanese and US innovators. The lessons to be learned are (1) becoming aware of the situation, (2) allocating spectrum that covers a sufficient population size to allow technological competition, and (3) developing a strong customer orientation.     

Shaping user-side innovation through standardisation: The example of ICT

This paper looks at the relations that exist between standardisation and user-side innovation in ICT. Some necessary background information are followed by a discussion of how standards and user-side innovations are shaped. A mutual influence between standardisation and innovation can be identified. To avoid the emergence of standards that are beneficial only for a handful of users a co-ordinated representation of users in standards setting is suggested.     

A dynamic framework for analyzing technology standardisation using network analysis and game theory

As more technologies and industries converge, technology standards are more likely to be a strategic factor for firms and governments that are interested in the market with standards-based competition. From the previous research, a new standardisation framework was proposed by combining network analysis and the game theory model but was constrained by feasibility and dynamic approach. In this study, the case of the standards war between HD-DVD and Blu-ray was analyzed with patent data as an empirical case considering a dynamic framework. With this framework, we observed a change in a firm’s technology relations and could predict the decline in a firm’s preference and the shift of equilibrium ahead of Toshiba’s resignation.     

Automation and management control in dynamic environments: Managing organisational flexibility and energy efficiency in service sectors

Automation has been conceptually explained in management accounting research as an antecedent to control problem avoidance (Emmanuel, Merchant, & Otley, 1990). However, the question of how automation is implicated in more dynamic service-based environments remains unanswered. We apply the Adler and Borys' (1996) bureaucracy framework to explain how enabling controls allow organisations to simultaneously pursue organisational flexibility and energy efficiency (Ahrens & Chapman, 2004; Jorgensen & Messner, 2009). Subsequently, we examine how automation and its related management control are designed and used in a dynamic service-based organisation, where goal attainment and the energy efficiency of its buildings are critical. In doing so, we explain how automation-related standardisation is adjusted by enabling control attributes (repair, flexibility, internal transparency) to advance user flexibility. Additionally, standardisation minimises the loss in energy efficiency when less optimal repair control behaviour manifests. Our study adds more depth to the work by Merchant and Van der Stede (2017) by exploring how automation complements labour in dynamic environments. Our findings offer greater understanding of how automation and management control systems are designed and used to enhance organisations' energy efficiency in dynamic service-based environments. In doing so, we advance extant environmental management accounting studies (Virtanen, Tuomaala, & Pentti, 2013).     

Identification of future fields of standardisation: An explorative application of the Delphi methodology

This paper investigates the application of the Delphi methodology for the identification of future fields of standardisation complemented by a methodological extension by using various science and technology indicators. By the term standardisation, we broadly mean the process of developing and implementing technical standards within a standardisation body. Underlining the explorative nature of this paper, we describe the process of identifying future fields of standardisation.To provide a systematic forecasting view on complex science and technology fields, a combination of quantitative indicator-based analyses and qualitative in-depth Delphi surveys is choosen. Firstly, statistical analyses of suitable indicators are used to identify dynamic developments in such fields. Secondly, to identify detailed challenges for future standardisation, qualitative Delphi surveys are conducted. To collect and evaluate relevant issues the respective expert communities were included. They were identified by using information derived from the science and technology databases used.The paper concludes with the assessment of the chosen approach and give practical insights for its feasibility based on a review of the existing literature on the Delphi methodology. In addition, an outlook for further improvements and other possible fields of application is given.     

Impact of changes in regulatory performance standards on innovation: A case of energy performance standards for newly-built houses

This paper explores the impact of changes in prescribed performance standards on innovation in an industry characterised by loosely coupled systems. Using a case of energy performance standards for newly-built houses, it investigates how changes to these standards have affected the innovation of houses, combining qualitative and quantitative data from the Netherlands. The key finding is that standardisation does not only increase the amount of innovation conducted in an industry while achieving societal goals, such as improving energy efficiency. It also triggers different types of innovation. While innovators in the investigated field prefer incremental innovations which can be integrated easily into existing ways of building houses, tightened requirements require systemic innovations, meaning that processes and organisations need to be changed. Additionally, we find that ambitious performance standards can also impact the organisation of an entire sector: they can force integration, the tightening of couplings between firms, in order to achieve systemic innovation.     

A new method for assessing the sustainability of land-use systems (II): Evaluating impact indicators

In the past decade, numerous indicators and indicator sets for sustainable agriculture and sustainable land management have been proposed. In addition to their interest in comparing different management systems on an indicator by indicator basis, land managers are often interested in comparing individual indicators against a threshold, or, in order to study trade-offs, against each other. To this end it is necessary to (1) transform the original indicators into a comparable format, and (2) score these transformed indicators against a sustainability function.This paper introduces an evaluation method for land-use-related impact indicators, which was designed to accomplish these tasks. It is the second of a series of two papers, and as such it links into a larger framework for sustainability assessment of land use systems.The evaluation scheme introduced here comprises (1) a standardisation procedure, which aims at making different indicators comparable. In this procedure indicators are first normalised, by referencing them to the total impact they contribute towards, and then they are corrected by a factor describing the severity of this total impact in terms of exceeding a threshold. The procedure borrows conceptually from Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) Impact Analysis methodology; (2) a valuation procedure, which judges the individual standardised indicators with regard to sustainability.This methodology is then tested on an indicator set for the environmental impact of a spinach production system in Northwest Germany. The method highlights mineral resource consumption, greenhouse gas emission, eutrophication and impacts on soil quality as the most important environmental effects of the studied system.We then explore the effect of introducing weighting factors, reflecting the differing societal perception of diverse environmental issues. Two different sets of weighting factors are used. The influence of weighting is, however, small compared to that of the standardisation procedure introduced earlier.Finally, we explore the propagation of uncertainty (defined as a variable's 95% confidence limits) throughout the standardisation procedure using a stochastic simulation approach. The uncertainty of the analysed standardised indicator was higher than that of the non-standardised indicators by a factor of 2.0 to 2.5.