Standards, Strategy, and Policy: Cases and Stories

This book aims to help business strategists and policy-makers understand how compatibility standards may be used to ensure business success. It combines strategic analysis with an evaluation of standards policy and suggests ways in which markets and policy intervention may be effectively used together. Cases include VCRs, CDs, DAT, PCs, Open Systems, HDTV, and Telepoint cordless phones.
This book aims to help the business strategist and policy-maker understand how compatiblity standards may be used to ensure business success. It provides a framework for standards strategy and policy, together with a series of case-studies which interpret the economics of standards in practical settings. The book considers the problems of establishing a new standard in the market and winning standards contests. It also studies questions of how to maintaing the
profitability of a standard and how to compete within an established standard. It combines the strategic analysis with an evaluation of standards policy, and suggests ways in which markets and policy intervention may effectively be used together. Cases include contests for standards for video cassette
recorders, digital audio tape, personal computers, open computer systems, high-definition television, and Telepoint cordless phones. Standards have long been seen as a technical problem, yet in a large number of industries they are central to business strategy and technical aspects are only part of the effort needed for product success. They imply very different strategies and policies than for conventional products.