The role,formation mechanism,and dynamic mechanism of action of technology standards in industrial systems

This paper asserts that industrial systems are a kind of complex system and that their evolvement mechanism fits a dissipative structure well. By applying complex system theory, this paper explores the role of technology standards in industrial systems from the perspective of order parameters. In addition, by adopting a low concentration trimolecular model to study how technologies transfer and diffuse, this paper illuminates the formation mechanism of technology standards and their dynamic mechanisms of action. Furthermore, this paper provides scales for the evolvement of industrial structures and attributes from the perspective of entropy theory. It also discusses organization formats and principles for promoting technology standardization in industrial systems.     

The cooperative effect between technology standardization and industrial technology innovation based on Newtonian mechanics

Technology standard and technology innovation are the core factors affecting market competition. Technology standardization plays an important role in promoting competitive advantages and improving industrial innovation system. It is the key that helps to build standard systems and making industrial policy. Standards have played an important role in the evolution of information and communication technology. By analyzing the synergistic mechanism and exterior factors, this paper proposes a new conceptual model consisted of a relative motion model of technology standard and technology innovation, and a volatility model of technology standardization and industrial technology innovation. Based on the analysis, this paper argues that high quality technology innovation can promote technology standard and high-level technology standard that is widely implemented can boost technology innovation. The analysis also shows that there exist cooperative effects between technology standardization and industrial technology innovation.     

Disruptive information technology innovations and the cost of equity capital: The moderating effect of CEO incentives and institutional pressures

Disruptive information technology (IT) innovations not only present opportunities, but also cause uncertain impacts on firm risk that affects the equity financing cost of a firm. This paper used longitudinal data from 146 U.S. listed firms that adopted radio frequency identification (RFID), a disruptive technology that enables supply chain process innovation. Results show that firms that adopted RFID significantly reduced their cost of equity capital, and the reduction was stronger for firms with greater CEO incentive-based compensation and coercive pressure. The findings help managers make strategies that maximize the benefits of disruptive IT innovations.     

The antecedents and consequences of technology standardizations in Korean IT small and medium-sized enterprises

With rapid changes in the business environment, leading or utilizing technology standards may help firms gain better performance through competitive advantage. Such activities related to technology standards are likely to provide numerous opportunities or benefits to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the highly technological divide among firms. However, few studies have paid attention to drivers, obstacles, and results of technology standards activities in SMEs. Consequently, this study bridges this research gap by identifying the factors influencing technology standardizations, which in turn contribute to firm performance in SMEs. The analytic results of survey data collected from 250 SMEs in the Korean IT sector reveal that all technology standardizations have an effect firm performance. Benefits from standards, R&D capability, and insufficient resources are influential factors of all technology standardizations. However, support of related institutes only affects inbound standardization. This study discusses theoretical and practical implications on technology standardizations in SMEs based on these findings.     

基于LNS-DEWKECA算法的多模态工业过程故障检测

受市场需求主导,工业过程需要在多种工作模态下切换,数据往往呈现多模态复杂分布特性,研究多模态的故障检测技术对于保障工业过程的安全运行具有重要意义.为此,提出一种基于局部近邻标准化(LNS)和方向熵加权核熵成分分析(DEWKECA)的故障检测算法.利用LNS实现多模态数据的标准化,相比于全局标准化,LNS可以有效消除多模态特性;考虑到故障样本与正常样本在变化趋势上的差异,定义样本变化方向的信息熵为方向熵,用来衡量样本变化方向的无序程度,从而利用DEWKECA实现数据降维,可以更有效提取数据变化方向特征;考虑到多模态数据往往服从非高斯分布,采用局部离群因子(LOF)算法建立监控统计量,根据核密度估计确定其控制限.最后,通过数值例子及TE过程仿真验证所提出算法的有效性.     

时间敏感型网络技术综述

时间敏感型网络(TSN)是目前国际产业界正在积极推动的工业通信技术。阐述了TSN技术产生的背景、工业物联网以及新制造转型中对于工业通信的需求,并从技术角度对TSN进行了全面的介绍。通过对当前国际上重要的TSN标准组织、企业、大学与研究机构的TSN实践进行分析,全面梳理了其发展简要历程、相关国际标准、实现架构与方法、开发、测试与验证、应用前景等。通过这些分析,以全局视角分析该技术对于产业的推动作用,以及未来发展趋势和在智能制造、工业互联网领域的前景,并希望国内的产业、标准化组织、大学等能够积极加强对其更为深入的研发、测试,以获得市场的先机。     

Towards a theoretical framework of strategic decision, supporting capability and information sharing under the context of Internet of Things

The effective strategy of Internet of Things (IoT) can help firms to grasp the emerging opportunities from the IoT and then improve their competitive advantage. In this article, based on organizational capability perspective, we provide a theoretical framework which classifies IoT strategies into four archetypes from two dimensions of managers’ strategic intent and industrial driving force, and propose that market-based exploratory capabilities play a more important role for firms adopting get-ahead strategy, and market-based exploitative capabilities play a more important role for firms adopting catch-up strategy in market. The technology-based exploratory capabilities play a more important role for firms adopting get-ahead strategy in technology, and technology-based exploitative capabilities play a more important role for firms adopting catch-up strategy in technology. Especially, external industry information sharing more efficiently contributes to the enhancement of both market-based and technology-based exploratory capabilities, and internal industry information sharing more efficiently contributes to the enhancement of both market-based and technology-based exploitative capabilities.     

Influences on standards adoption in de facto standardization

In the IT industry, de facto standards emerge from standards competition as firms offer incompatible technologies, and user choices determine the outcome of the competition. The standards literature suggests that strong network effects create a bias toward a standard with a large installed base, leading to a winner-take-all outcome. More recently, several researchers have revealed that the dynamics of standardization are much more complex than the explanation offered by the economic theory of networks. Markets do not always exhibit tipping behavior so there is not always a single winner in de facto standardization; and the size of an overall installed base does not always exert a strong influence on adoption decisions. In contrast, network effects drawn from local social influence may be more salient to user adoption decisions. We ask: (1) Do we always observe a winner-take-all outcome in de facto standards competition? (2) What are the different technology adoption patterns observed in de facto standards competition? (3) What are the implications of network effects, switching costs, pricing, and functionality enhancement strategies on the outcome of de facto standards competition in different user network structures? Drawing on the economic theory of networks, the complex network theory, and previous work in the standards literature, we examine the influence of network effects, switching costs, price, and technology functionality on user adoption decisions using agent-based simulation. We incorporate underlying user network structures frequently observed in the real world as an important determining factor of user adoption decisions. Our results suggest that de facto standardization process does not always follow a three-phased S-shaped pattern. Winner-take-all is not a necessary outcome of standards competition. User network structures have a significant impact on the dynamics and outcomes of standards competition.     

Integrating market,technology, and policy opportunities in e-business strategy

This article is a call to arms for electronic business managers and researchers to increase their attention to the emerging “policy” frontiers and employ theories and methods integrating policy with market and technology issues. The e-business environment is growing more complex—not just economically, but socially, politically, and legally—and firms must manage this complexity with strategies that match the amount and variety of complexity in their environment. In many e-business firms, there is a notable disdain toward emerging policy developments or even a mind set that e-business is beyond emerging social conventions, politics and the law (or at least beyond the reach of regulators). In the emerging global policy landscape, few firms can afford this hands-off attitude toward policy and maintain their chance of survival. E-business firms must integrate their policy strategies with their technology and market strategies. We outline five broad questions for researchers to help e-business firms address the interdependent challenges of market, technology and policy environments.     

Internet computing as a disruptive information technology innovation: the role of strong order effects1

A cross‐sector survey study was conducted between 2004 and 2005 among 121 software firms that adopted internet computing for the presence of strong order effects, which explain how, why and in which order radical innovations in information system (IS) are adopted. The following strong order effects were detected: (1) the amount of base innovations positively and directly influenced the amount of service innovation and the amount of process innovation, while the amount of service innovation partially mediates the impact of base innovation on process innovation; (2) the radicalness of base innovations directly and positively influences the radicalness of service innovation, while the impact of the radicalness of the base innovation on the radicalness of process innovations is fully mediated by the radicalness of service innovation; (3) the predominant sequence of initial adoption of radical information technology innovations is first in base innovations, followed by service innovations and finally by process innovations. Our study helps to better understand how and why radical innovations are adopted in ensembles by software firms. In consequence, software organizations should orchestrate flexible innovation strategies that recognize that radical innovations are interconnected and heterogeneous.     

A standards war waged by a developing country: Understanding international standard setting from the actor-network perspective

Standards have become a basis of global competition among countries. Although there are many studies of standards and standardization, little is known about how international standards are set. Even less is known about how it occurs in the unprecedented case in which a developing country is actively involved in this process. In the past few years, China, leveraging the huge size of its domestic markets, has attempted to influence international technology standard setting. Standardization, especially at the international level, often revolves around building an alliance surrounding a particular technology. Actor-network theory (ANT) is a theory that helps analyze the ways in which actors form alliances and enroll other actors to strengthen such alliances surrounding a technology. Therefore, we see a fit between the study of standard setting and ANT. In this paper, we use ANT to investigate the process of mobile standard setting in an international context where firms, industry consortia, and governments collaborate and compete in complex ways. It is found that China’s attempt to set WAPI as a national standard failed in enrolling other actors mainly due to the fact that WAPI was too closed a standard even for a de jure one; China did not release the WAPI security algorithm to the scrutiny of the international community.     

The impact of early XBRL adoption on analysts’ forecast accuracy - empirical evidence from China

Developing common standards, such as eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL), to smoothen information sharing in the value chain is considered the leading issue for releasing the potential of e-business. Data standards such as XBRL play a critical role in an increasingly networked environment. Despite promises of XBRL to improve data accuracy, few empirical studies have tested the impact of early XBRL adoption on the quality of information. Theories explaining information technology (IT) productivity paradox indicate that value realization from IT innovations may experience time lag due to the need for technology refinement and diffusion. This study examines the impact of early adoption of XBRL on analysts’ forecast accuracy with empirical data of Chinese firms. The uncertainty related to the unproven technology, such as information errors, has decreased analysts’ forecast accuracy during the early adoption period among firms in an economy with little public information on listed firms. Our findings have practical implications that will facilitate the quality improvement of financial information in a networked business environment. Our findings highlight the importance of quality assurance and policy enforcement for value realization from XBRL adoption to regulators, filers, information consumers, the accounting profession and other stakeholders.     

With or without you: The countervailing forces and effects of process standardization

Process standardization is defining a new era of business process revolution across many industries and contexts in electronic commerce in which the impetus for cooperation is greater than the drivers of competition. As industries consolidate and competition rises, firms are increasingly pursuing process standardization to further enhance process management and reap the benefits of standards. The current literature explores and analyzes standards and standardization at the IT, firm, and industry levels. The complex nature of process standardization requires a reorientation of the existing approaches to analysis to understand the countervailing forces and effects. This article introduces a robust framework that captures the dynamics of process standardization across four levels of analysis: IT innovation, firm, industry, and economy. It also presents the cascading effects that occur as we traverse through the different levels. We use this framework to draw conclusions for appropriate directions in research that will enable greater theoretical and managerial understanding of the related issues.     

Relationship between quality‐management systems and organizational innovations

The purpose of this study is to ascertain whether there is any correlation between the implementation of quality‐management systems (QMSs) in manufacturing firms and the use of certain organizational innovations in those firms. A conceptual model of the relationships among the constructs of “organizational innovations” and “level of quality management” is proposed and tested. The study finds a correlation between the level of quality management in an organization and the implementation of procedural organizational innovations. Because the study is pioneering and exploratory in nature, the analysis is confined to the use of a limited number of organizational innovations in Spanish manufacturing firms. The findings will assist managers to make appropriate strategic decisions when implementing QMSs. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Interplay between technology and meaning: How music majors reacted?

The diffusion of digital technologies enables companies to propose new business, products and services. The business environment is characterized by increasing levels of competition, and customers can choose a growing number of solutions. In this scenario, companies seek new dimension of innovation: the meaning. A vigorous debate has taken place among scholars on the strategies that companies may use to react to external innovations. Until now, the phenomenon has been analysed grounded in the technology‐push literature. The goal of this study is to understand whether these strategies are still valuable even if innovators leverage not only on the technology but also on a hedonic dimension proposing an innovation of meaning. Through a multiple case‐study analysis, based on both primary and secondary sources, we investigate whether the case companies from the music industry also used the strategies described in the literature to cope with technological innovations that leverage both on technology and meaning.     

Design‐Driven Innovation in Retailing: An Empirical Examination of New Services in Car Dealership

The paper focuses on innovation in the automotive retail industry. Innovation in service has been acknowledged as a critical source of competitive advantage and retail firms are looking for innovations that can increase their competitiveness. This notwithstanding, there are no studies that focus on whether and how design‐driven innovation (DDI) can be pursued by retail firms as an innovation strategy. In the attempt to close this gap in our understanding of innovation in retail firms, this paper discusses 104 examples of strategic innovation projects identified by automotive retail firms which operate in the UK, Germany, Italy, Serbia and Spain. The exploratory empirical analysis shows that a certain number of automotive retail firms (although not the majority) choose DDI as a strategy embodied in strategic innovation projects designed to achieve superior performance. Moreover, by following the typology proposed by Sawhney and colleagues, the analysis suggests that these projects are elicited by spatial reconfiguration and expansion, whereas temporal innovation does not seem to provide a fertile ground for DDI.     

The politics of networking technology in health care

The theme of the paper is the tension between centralization and the need for standardization versus the need for locally developed organization and use of information technology. Unanticipated side effects have always existed in IT-based organization change. However, the trend towards integration, both within and across organizational boundaries, may amplify the diversity and scope of such effects, thus making them more dificult to deal with. We will explore the tensions between local and centralized control on three levels: how networking technology applications can support centralization and decentralization of control, how standards and standarization processes deal with the central/local tension, and how well established information system design techniques such as modelling and formalization cope with this tension. The strategies for dealing with these political issues, we argue, are participatory and evolutionary standardization.We are grateful for extensive comments and advice from several people, helping us in clarifying the main topic of the paper and discussing our line of argument and presentation. We thank Mike Robinson, Jonathan Grudin, Ina Wagner, Barbara Andrews, David Hakken and Peter Holmes for their contributions.     

Sources of Innovation and Ideas in ICT Firms in Australia

This paper examines a sample of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) firms in Australia drawn from a wide range of product and service providers in the Sydney region. It researches the sources of information and ideas that firms utilize to sustain their competitive position through innovation. While the firms in the survey varied in size in terms of turnover, number of employees and level of business activity, most see themselves as innovative. Not all firms utilized the same sources of innovation‐related knowledge and most used research and technology organizations (RTOs) or other publicly funded sources of information for help with ‘technical’ (standards etc) or trade issues. While ICT firms are often regarded as leading‐edge developers of new ideas, this research indicated that ICT firms still see their sales force, customers and suppliers as the most important sources of innovation knowledge and ideas.     

An overview of standards development for robots and robotic systems

This paper is a summary of the standards development work which has been completed, is in process, or is under consideration in the area of robot and robotic systems standards including general areas such as environment, general requirements, data communications, general electrical and control requirements, control/machine interface, and safety. The intent of this paper is to show the interrelationship of various standards groups and organizations who are doing or considering doing work in this field and how the various standards projects or published standards are interrelated. Both national and international work is addressed. The paper also provides information on how the work in robots standards fits with other work being done in the area of industrial automation.     

关于HTML5的核心技术研究与应用

HTML5是为替代从前使用的HTML4．01以及XHTML1．0标准而出现的一种新型Web开发标准。当前HTML5的应用面与从前相比较广,已经不限于Web相关内容。目前在该平台上已经实现了视频、音频以及图形、动画等的标准化,本文针对HTML5中的核心技术进行了研究与分析,同时表述了其在移动客户终端中的应用。