Standardization Alliance Networks, Standard‐Setting Influence, and New Product Outcomes*

Abstract

Standardization alliances evolve through collaborations among firms for developing and implementing industry technical standards. Cooperative standard setting can help allied firms to gain access to external knowledge and technologies, but it is unclear how the configuration of a standardization alliance can result in improving a firm’s performance in new product development. This study examines how standardization alliance network‐based resource advantages vary across a firm’s network position and the firm’s ability to influence industry standard setting and new product outcomes. Empirical analyses, based on archival data from 170 Chinese automobile manufacturers from 1999 to 2013, indicate that firms that span structural holes in standardization alliance networks gain an advantage when focusing on early new product introductions but suffer a disadvantage when aiming at more innovative products. In contrast, taking a central position in standardization alliance networks is negatively related to a firm’s speed in bringing new products to market but positively related to the firm’s new product introduction rate. Further, standard‐setting influence significantly mediates the effect of network position on a firm’s new product speed to market. Increasing centrality and structural holes can lead to the improvement of a firm’s standard‐setting influence, and this, in turn, positively affects speed to market.

The influence of standards and patents on long-term economic growth

“…Also, it would be worthwhile to add some in-depth country time-series studies to the few existing ones, especially for countries outside of Europe (e.g., China). Research on standardization in China is picking up, see, for example, work by Zhang et al (2020) and Wen et al (2020) on the effects of standardization on corporate innovation in China. In any case, data availability of time series that are consistent across countries is a challenge.…”

Paving the path: drivers of standardization participation at ISO

“…In addition, the close and strategic relationship between R&D and innovation on the one side and standardization on the other side has been recently revealed by several Chinese studies. Chinese researchers start to publish about their companies' technology oriented standardization strategies (Zhang et al, 2020b), innovation (Zhang et al, 2020a) and product performance (Wen et al, 2020).…”

Evaluating key capabilities for developing global collaborative networks using a multi-layer decision-making approach

“… Promoting equality amongst partners  Shared vision and agreed goals on how to do business;  UNIDO, 2003), (Caglio and Ditillo, 2008), (Petter et al, 2014), (Gomes-Casseres, 2015, (Soda et al, 2018), (Papa et al, 2020), (Hjertvikrem and Fitjar, 2021) ( UNIDO, 2003), (Tálamo and Carvalho, 2010), (Catalina, 2010), (Lundberg, 2010), (Petter et al, 2014), (Semnani et al, 2015), (Ricciardi et al, 2018), (Bodin et al, 2020), (Al Hattab, 2021 14 Strategy  Ability to recognise collective competencies and converting these to gain competitive advantages;  Identifying opportunities, market developments, and regional economic and political climate. (Caglio and Ditillo, 2008), (Sacomano Neto and Serra Truzzi, 2009), (Lin and Sun, 2010), (Lundberg, 2010), (Moeller, 2010), (Niu, 2010), (Oprime et al, 2011), (Cambra-Fierro et al, 2011, (Petter et al, 2014), (Vuletic et al, 2017), (Soda et al, 2018), (Bodin et al, 2020) (Niu, 2010), (Catalina, 2010), (Moeller, 2010), (Petter et al, 2014), (Soda et al, 2018), (Ricciardi et al, 2018), (Wen et al, 2020)…”

“…Competitive Collaboration  Promote collaborative behavior between partners;  Promoting opportunities and competitive actions;  Adopt managerially and IT for promoting communication and integration amongst network members. (Camarinha-Matos et al, 2009), (Lin and Sun, 2010), (Niu, 2010), (Tálamo and Carvalho, 2010), (Zeng et al, 2010), (Moeller, 2010), (Oprime et al, 2011), (Adobor, 2011), (Petter et al, 2014), (Peng et al, 2018), (Camarinha-Matos et al, 2019), (Wen et al, 2020) 12 Financial resources  Accessing business talent (beyond agricultural knowledge);  Better visibility of cash flow amongst partners;  Cost efficiencies and reducing debts;  Open book accounting to agree on cost and profit share.…”

“…( UNIDO, 2003), (Sacomano Neto and Serra Truzzi, 2009), (Niu, 2010), (Lundberg, 2010), (Petter et al, 2014), (Soda et al, 2018), (Wen et al, 2020) 11 Improving productivity  Introduce modern methods to realised productivity;  Develop capacity and productivity KPIs and track using technology. (Lundberg, 2010), (Moeller, 2010), (Lin and Sun, 2010), (Niu, 2010), (Oprime et al, 2011), (Petter et al, 2014), (Peng et al, 2018) 9…”