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  • February 28, 2014
  • Article
  • Science

A Better Route to Tech Standards

By: Josh Lerner and Jean Tirole
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Abstract

Technological standards are ubiquitous, whether they allow consumers to communicate seamlessly across wireless networks or manufacturers to procure goods across complex global supply chains. These standards—shaped by standard-setting organizations (SSOs) and participating engineers, academics, lawyers, and executives—in turn shape how new technologies evolve, specifying rules for how standard-compliant products must work and interact with other components. This standardization process is under tremendous stress. Many disputes roiling courts and administrative bodies around the world—such as those involving Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Samsung—concern commitments made during the standardization process and the ways that firms have sought to "game" the system. We explore why the system is breaking down and propose a way in which standard setting could be redesigned to address these problems.

Citation

Lerner, Josh, and Jean Tirole. "A Better Route to Tech Standards." Science 343, no. 6174 (February 28, 2014): 972–973.
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About The Author

Josh Lerner

Entrepreneurial Management
→More Publications

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    Fencing Off Silicon Valley: Cross-Border Venture Capital and Technology Spillovers

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    Venture Capital's Role in Financing Innovation: What We Know and How Much We Still Need to Learn

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    Two Case Studies on the Financing of Forest Conservation

    By: Andrew Baxter, Connor Cash, Josh Lerner and Ratnika Prasad
More from the Authors
  • Fencing Off Silicon Valley: Cross-Border Venture Capital and Technology Spillovers By: Ufuk Akcigit, Sina T. Ates, Josh Lerner, Richard Townsend and Yulia Zhestkova
  • Venture Capital's Role in Financing Innovation: What We Know and How Much We Still Need to Learn By: Josh Lerner and Ramana Nanda
  • Two Case Studies on the Financing of Forest Conservation By: Andrew Baxter, Connor Cash, Josh Lerner and Ratnika Prasad
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