Consortia in the Standards Development Process

Martin Weiss, and Carl Cargill

7/14/2021
(Original Publish Date: September 1992)

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.