An integrated model of consortium-based e-business standardization: collaborative development and adoption with network externalities

Abstract E-business standards are critical for electronic transactions. In many industries, firms develop e-business standards collaboratively in a standard consortium. They can choose to become a leading developer, a passive adopter, or a non-adopter. Since firms' strategic choices at the development stage and the adoption stage are related due to the double-sided interactions between the two stages, we propose an integrated model of consortium-based e-business standardization. We find that firms' payoffs from standard adoption increase with their intrinsic value of the standard, but developers' benefits in- * Accepted for publication in the Journal of Management Information Systems. 1 crease faster than passive adopters' benefits. The model examines the value of passive adopters to the standard development via network externalities, even though passive adopters do not contribute in the consortium directly. However, the existence of passive adopters is not inevitable. There are two possible equilibria for the endogenous formation of the developer network and the adopter network, one without passive adopters and one with passive adopters. How external conditions affect the endogenous formation of the consortium depends upon whether there are passive adopters in the equilibrium. Based on our analysis, we recommend strategies to e-business standard consortia to motivate firms' participation and enhance social welfare created by the standard