Making and Re-Making an Industry

Abstract

Abstract This chapter analyses standardization in the mobile infrastructure equipment industry since the late 1970s. This industry provides an illustration of the complexity of the governance of innovation when continual technological development needs to be balanced with standards that ensure interoperability and stabilize change to allow for significant investment in research and development (R&D). It highlights the permanent negotiation and renegotiation involved as the nature of industry itself evolves with different actors, market needs, and technological issues giving rise to new forms of governance. Solutions adopted to deal with inevitable conflicts generate new innovative strategies and the industry is again transformed in a way that gives rise to new conflicts and new solutions. The chapter concludes, somewhat speculatively, by suggesting that due to recent legislative challenges with respect to the essential patents, the current renegotiation might lead to a less globally standardized industry in the future.