Network Size and Diversity for ICT Standard Consortium Success: A Configurational Perspective

Abstract

While many researchers have researched the factors affecting standard consortium success, the size and diversity of a consortium were given the most importance. However, investigating the combined effect of these two factors on standard consortium success using specific indicators of success was limited. Past research required action on applying a new approach to determine the extent to which these variables work together toward the success of standard consortia. It was also important to investigate the network configurations of consortia given the multiple factors that come into play in the process of standardization over the years. This required a configurational approach with huge consortium-level data to test. The objective of this research is to find the configurations of size and diversity that lead to standard consortium success, in the ICT and telecommunications industry, success being represented by specific indicators. The data was collected from the websites ‘consortiuminfo.org’ and LinkedIn using Python packages and was analyzed using Crisp-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (csQCA). This analysis was done considering two indicators of success individually and combined as a single variable, summing up to three analyses. The analysis revealed that the size and diversity of consortia are necessary conditions, but only diversity is found to be a sufficient condition for standard consortium success in this sample dataset of ICT consortia. The findings suggest that researchers should continue to explore the involvement of other factors along with the size and diversity as combinations instead of only analyzing the variables’ effects individually. Furthermore, by doing this the scope of the research broadens by breadth and depth as more data and more insights about factors of standard consortium success can be gathered.