Understanding the Evolution of Standards: Alignment and Reconfiguration in Standards Development and Implementation Arenas

Robin Williams, Raluca Bunduchi, Martina Gerst, Ian Graham, Neil Pollock, Robert Procter, and Alex Voss

1/01/2005
(Original Publish Date: 2000)

The development of standards has enormous significance for technological development, particularly in relation to ICTs. However socio-economic analysis of standards is still at a rather rudimentary stage. Analyses of standards development has often been static, focusing upon the interplay between the various interests involved in relation to a particular standard (through a case-study of the agreement of a particular standard) thus limited in time and in focus. In this paper we develop a dynamic analysis of standards and their evolution over time. 1. We examine standards development and standards implementation together (even though they operate in very different socio-technical settings). This highlights inter-alia, the role of various kinds of intermediaries (technology suppliers, user representatives) linking these domains of development and use more or less effectively. 2. We develop a longitudinal analysis of the evolution of standards addressing the life-cycle of standards conceived in terms of a series of versions of a particular standard, and the displacement of one standard by another. Such a conceptualization of the standard life cycle helps identifying the feedbacks between standards development and implementation. In this way we seek a more effective understanding of the way standards evolve over time not only through interaction with the environment in which they are developed but equally important with the environment where they are applied. We draw upon Jorgensen's concept of area to analyse some of the shifts and discontinuities besetting standards development, highlighting the ways in which entry of new concepts and new actors can provoke realignments and occasionally radical reconfigurations amongst the standards development and standards implementing constituencies. The theoretical argument is exemplified by a discussion of the evolution of healthcare messaging standards in the British health service. In conclusion, a conceptual model will be mapped out to capture the interaction between standards and their socio-technical settings, and how these evolve over time.