Standards consortia develop technical standards or specifications and promote these to reach market dominance. Research on competing standards has explored either firm-level or standard-level factors, but the dynamics of standards consortia and their survival have remained largely understudied. The pre- and post-competitive phase of standards consortia supporting standards may better explain why certain standard-setting efforts fail where others succeed. In this empirical study we operationalize the concepts of internal standards consortium competition and standards consortium commitment, and analyse the effects of these concepts on the survival of high-tech standards consortia. We find that the influx of new strategic members throughout the years is beneficial for the longevity of the consortium. In addition, we find that standards consortia possibly constrain the entrance of new members if their existing members have a multitude of other concurrent standards consortium memberships.

This paper investigates the paradox of authenticity versus standardisation. It examines the features that constitute restaurant authenticity and determines whether these can be standardised within an alliance of top restaurants to reap the benefits of commonalities among the restaurants. We determine the features of authenticity by examining the literature, by interviewing owners and managers of alliance restaurants and by means of a consumer survey. The results show several discrepancies. Combining these three data sources allowed us to distinguish between essential and peripheral features of authenticity. This distinction can help to define a standard for restaurant authenticity, specifying minimum levels for essential features of authenticity.

Standardisation is key to shaping new technologies and supporting major ongoing trends, such as the increased importance of platforms, developing 'smart' technologies and innovating large-scale complex systems. Standardisation plays a key role in shaping the rules that govern these developments and their effects on society. Due to the large variety of actors involved in these trends, the associated standardisation processes are likely to involve all three modes of standardisation identified in the literature: committee-based, market-based and government-based. This multi-mode standardisation challenges the theoretical views on standardisation which predominantly focus on one of the modes. In this paper, we review the existing literatures on individual modes and on multi-mode standardisation. By recombining existing evidence, we generate new insights into multi-mode standardisation processes. These first insights relate to the contributions that each mode can make to such processes' outcomes and suggest that their impact depends on factors, such as their initiation's timing and the institutional context in which the standardisation process occurs. Moreover, we consider the conditions under which actors can launch each mode. Based on our observations, we formulate an agenda for future research to obtain a better understanding of multi-mode standardisation. We offer recommendations for industry actors, NGOs, researchers and policy makers involved in shaping technological and societal change.