| Abstract: |
This study provides a comprehensive analysis of the governance of standard
development organizations (SDOs), with a particular emphasis on organizations
developing standards for Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). The
analysis is based on 17 SDO case studies, a survey of SDO stakeholders, an
expert workshop, and a comprehensive review of the legal and economic
literature. The study considers the external factors conditioning SDO decision
making on rules and procedures, including binding legal requirements,
government influence, the network of cooperative relationships with other SDOs
and related organizations, and competitive forces. SDO decision-making is also
shaped by internal factors, such as the SDOs’ institutional architecture of
decision-making bodies and their respective decision-making processes, which
govern the interaction among SDO stakeholders and between stakeholders and the
SDO itself. The study also analyzes governance principles, such as openness,
balance of interests, and consensus decision-making, and discusses their
interplay. The insights from these analyses are applied to SDO decision making
on Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) policies, which represents a
particularly salient and controversial aspect of SDO policy development. |