Technological Diffusion and Standardization Patterns: An Industrial Taxonomy
Abstract: This study expands on the results of a previous article I (Javier Carrillo-Hermosilla) co-wrote with Gregory Unruh (2006) and published in this journal. The present paper aims to identify and evaluate the relationships existing between the main characteristics of industries and the attributes of the technology standardization processes within them. To achieve this goal, six different sensitivity analyses were carried out on the effects of incremental modifications in the parameters of our agent based model (ABM). In addition to increasing returns, long term stability, or persistent standards, appears to require other variables, such as a low innovation rate, high user survival rates, durable capital, high switching costs, and/or high barriers entry. The results of the simulation allowed us to corroborate a number of intuitions from economics, while drawing attention to less obvious relationships, suggesting possible lines of empirical research to confirm and expand on the insights presented herein.