IOS standards development consortium diffusion strategies: a market structure approach

Abstract

The topic on IOS standards and SDCs (Standards Development Consortia) is an emerging research trend in MIS field. There have been plenty of studies on the side of why and how firms adopt and use their IOS systems and it is not yet clear what roles SDCs can play to facilitate the diffusion of IOS standards as well as help the firms to implement IOS systems. This paper proposes a Market Structure-Diffusion Strategy fit model where the success of an SDC’s diffusion strategy in a market depends on the strategy’s fit with the market structure. The diffusion process of one IOS standard (RosettaNet) was studied in four markets—China, Japan, Singapore and Taiwan. The results show that certain type of strategies leads to standards diffusion success in the local market if the strategy type fits the market structure.