Consortia in the standards development process

• Published in: Journal of the American Society for Information Science Vol. 43; no. 8; pp. 559 - 565
• Main Authors: Weiss, Martin, Cargill, Carl
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, D.C Wiley Subscription Services, Inc., A Wiley Company 01.09.1992; American Documentation Institute; Wiley Periodicals Inc
• Subjects: Classification; Computer Networks; Computerized information storage and retrieval; Computerized subject indexing; Consortia; Democratization; Divestiture; Economics; Emergence; Externality; Free Enterprise System; Game theory; Information science; Information storage and retrieval; Information Technology; Information work; Institutional Cooperation; Interoperability; Markets; Open systems; Open Systems Interconnection; Organizations; Policy Formation; Political Socialization; Political theory; Politics; Product development; Product differentiation; R&D; Research & development; Standard Setting; Subject indexing; Taxonomy; Technological change; Technology adoption; User groups; New York; United States > US
• ISSN: 0002-8231; 1097-4571
• DOI: 10.1002/(SICI)1097-4571(199209)43:8<559::AID-ASI7>3.0.CO;2-P

Among the many new phenomena that have arisen since the divestiture of AT&T in the United States, and the liberalization of information technology markets worldwide, the emergence of consortia explicitly related to the standards setting process. While R&D consortia and user groups have existed for many years, consortia in the standards‐setting process possess unique properties. This article develops a classification of the standard‐setting consortia and develops a theoretical basis for their emergence. This theory is based on the confluence of two classical economic theories: political theory and the theory of markets where network externalities exist. We also consider the implications of these consortia on the standards‐setting process from theoretical and practical perspectives. © 1992 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.