Institutional Entrepreneurship in the Sponsorship of Common Technological Standards: The Case of SUN Microsystems and Java

RAGHU GARUD, Leonard N. Stern School of Business, Department of Management and Organization Behavior, SANJAY JAIN, University of Wisconsin - Madison - School of Business, Department of Management and Human Resources, and ARUN KUMARASWAMY, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, School of Business - Camden

1/01/2005
(Original Publish Date: 2002)

Institutional entrepreneurship implicit in a firm's sponsorship of its technology as a common standard is beset by several challenges. These challenges arise from a standard's property to enable and constrain even as potential competitors agree to cooperate on its creation. Our exploration of Sun Microsystems's sponsorship of its Java technology suggests that standards-in-the-making generate seeds of self-destruction. Our study also identifies the social and political skills that a sponsor deploys to address these challenges.