A standardization framework

Abstract

The standardization model developed in this section is a first step towards addressing some of the drawbacks discussed in the previous section. While modeling basically the same phenomenon, i.e. technology choice under increasing returns, the standardization model was developed to consider:

• individual decision-making, i.e. the particular informational and economical environment of all network actors, especially their heterogeneous costs and benefits and the information sets available

• clear direct network effects, i.e. explicit and separate indirect dependencies will be added in future versions to explicitly analyze their implications

• the influence and interplay of determinants such as network topology and density, agent size and choice sequence, or installed base on network behavior

• applicability to real-world problems, i.e. the model as well as its software implementation should be adjustable to both particular problem instances incorporating empirical data as well as generalized networks

“if the dominant symbol of the industrial economy is a factory, then the emblem of the modern economy is a network” [Mauboussin/Schay/Kawaja 2000]