Research Proposal:

Studying Open Innovation on Vertical Standardization effort

Fatemeh SaadatmandUniversity of Borås (HIT)

University of Gothenburg (Applied IT department)fatemeh.saadatmand@hb.seSupervisor: Rikard Lindgren

Standardization is the activity of establishing and recording a limited set of solutions to actual or potential matching problems during a certain period by a substantial number of the parties (de Vries ,2003, p. 155: Hanseth et al. 2006).

Standardization

Of special interest in the ICT arena are anticipatory standards that share three additional characteristics (Lyytinen and king, 2006):

Intended to guide future compatibility, or interoperability (David 1995;Markus et al 2006; Nickerson and zur Muehlen 2006);

Created in international and/or national institutional regulatory contexts (Hawkins 1995)

Proprietary or public domain agreements (Gabel 1991).

Anticipatory Standard

Vertical information systems (VIS) standards are designed to promote communication and coordination among the organizations comprising a particular industry sector (Wigand et al. 2005).

Vertical Standardization

Standardization occurs through the widespread adoption of four kinds of standards (Steinfield et al. 2006, David and Greenstein 1990):◦ Standards that exist in the public domain but are

not sponsored by an organization with proprietary interest in them.

◦ Standards that are sponsored by one or more organizations with a proprietary interest.

◦ Standards that are mandated by government.◦ Standards that are published by voluntary

standard-developing organizations.

VS Development

Open Innovation is a new way of thinking of innovation for firms, where firms explicitly cooperate with others to create new innovations (Chesbrough, 2003).

Innovation studies have distinguished three different innovations:

◦ Radical innovations (Christensen and Rosenbloom, 1995).◦ Incremental innovations (Christensen and Rosenbloom,

1995). ◦ Architectural innovations (Henderson and Clark, 1990).

A variant of architectural innovation is systemic innovation (Maula et al., 2006), where both the technology and the business system are altered.

Open Innovation

Three core types of open innovation processes (Gassmann and Enkel 2004):

Outside-in process. Inside-out process. Coupled process.

*: Most research on open innovation has focused on the firm.

Open Innovation processes

Contribution: This research tends to broaden the intra-

organizational aspects of open innovation. Research questions: What factors causes the initiation of open

innovation process in vertical standardization?

How is vertical standard affected by open innovation processes?

Research Questions

The 10-year project of standardization of the Swedish road transport industry is used as the empirical background of this research especially the MSI standardization attempt.

Empirical Background

This research aims to analyze an ADR research project which has been done as a vertical standardization effort started in 2002.

The ADR research project has been a collaborative project between University of Borås, University of Göteborg, Victoria Institute and a large transport industry network consisting of IT vendors, truck manufacturers and a consultative organization owned by 16 Swedish transport firms.

Research Design

Interviews Workshop-meetings

Data Sources

Chesbrough, H. “Open Innovation: a new paradigm for understanding industrial innovation”, in Chesbrough, H., Vanhaverbeke, W. and West, J. (Eds), Open Innovation – Researching a New Paradigm, Oxford University Press, Oxford. 2006

Christensen, C.M. and Rosenbloom, R.S. “Explaining the attacker’s advantage: technological paradigms, organizational dynamics, and the value network”, Research Policy, Vol. 24, pp. 233-57. 1995

David, P.A. and Greenstein, S. (1990), “The economics of compatibility standards: an introduction to resent research”, Economic of Innovation and New Technology, Vol. 1, pp. 3-41.

De Vries, H. J. Standardization: A Business Approach to the Role of National Standardization Organizations, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Boston, 2003.

References

Gabel, H. L. Competitive strategies for product standards: The strategic use of compatibility standards for competitive advantage. London: McGraw-Hill Book Company. 1991.

Gassmann, O. and Enkel, E. “Towards a theory of open innovation: three core process archetypes”, Proceedings of the R&D Management Conference, Sesimbra. 2004.

Hanseth, O., Jacucci, E., Grisot, M., Aanestad, M. ” REFLEXIVE STANDARDIZATION: SIDE EFFECTS AND COMPLEXITY IN STANDARD MAKING”, MIS Quarterly Vol. 30 Special Issue, pp. 563-581, August 2006

Hawkins, R. W. Introduction: Addressing the problématique of standards and standardization. In R. W. Hawkins, R. Mansell, & J. Skea (Eds.), Standards, innovation and competitiveness: The politics and economics of standards in natural and technical environments.Aldershot, UK: Edward Elgar. 1995.

References (cont.)

Henderson, R.M.Clark, K.B “Architectural Innovation: The reconfiguration of Existing Product Technologies and the Failure of Established Firms”, Administrative Science Quarterly (35) 1990, pp 9-30.

Lyytinen, K., King, J. L. ” STANDARD MAKING: A CRITICAL RESEARCH FRONTIER FOR INFORMATION SYSTEMS RESEARCH”, MIS Quarterly Vol. 30 Special Issue, pp.405-411, August 2006

Markus, M. L., Steinfield, C. W. and Wigand, R. T. (2006). “Industry-Wide Information Systems Standardization as Collective Action: The Case of the U.S. Residential Mortgage Industry”, MIS Quarterly, 30 (special issue), pp. 439-465.

Maula, M.V.J., Keil, T. and Salmenkaita, J-P. (2006), “Open Innovation in systemic innovation contexts”, in Chesbrough, H., Vanhaverbeke, W. and West, J. (Eds), Open Innovation Researching a New Paradigm, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Nickerson, J.V., Zur Muehlen, M. ” THE ECOLOGY OF STANDARDS PROCESSES: INSIGHTS FROM INTERNET STANDARD MAKING1”,MIS Quarterly Vol. 30 Special Issue, pp. 467-488, August 2006.

Steinfield C.W., Wigand R., Lynne M. Promoting e-business through vertical IS standards: lessons from the US home mortgage industry. 2006

Wigand, R. T., Steinfield, C. W. and Markus, M. L. “Information Technology Standards Choices and Industry Structure Outcomes”, Journal of Management Information Systems, 22 (2), pp. 165-191. 2005.

References (cont.)