Evolution of Standards and Innovation

Reiko Aoki and Yasuhiro Arai

No 619, CIS Discussion paper series from Center for Intergenerational Studies, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University

Abstract: We develop a framework to examine how a standard evolves when a standard consortium or firm (incumbent) innovates either to improve the standard or to strengthen the installed base, which increases switching costs. Both investments make it more difficult for another firm (entrant) to introduce a standard by investing in technology improvement. Our analysis shows that that incumbent’s strategy depends on whether the technology is in its infancy or has matured, and that entrants cannot supplant the existing standard. A standard consortium brings dynamic benefits by preventing replacement by an entrant. When the technology is in its infancy, the incumbent deters entry, but when the technology is mature, entry and the coexistence of two standards are tolerated. The dominance of a single standard, even for well-established technologies, suggests that incumbents have market power. Our results also suggest that having superior technology is not enough to enable entrants to supplant an existing standard.

Keywords: standards; innovation; technology; upgrades; standardization; replacement effect (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 38 pages
Date: 2014-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-com, nep-ino, nep-knm and nep-tid
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://hermes-ir.lib.hit-u.ac.jp/hermes/ir/re/26486/cis_dp619.pdf

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hit:cisdps:619

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in CIS Discussion paper series from Center for Intergenerational Studies, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Digital Resources Section, Hitotsubashi University Library ().