Homogeneity and heterogeneity in IT private standard settings – the institutional account

The IT standardisation landscape is currently characterised by three developments: the increasing importance of private standard setting consortia, greater convergence between the structural features of formal and private standard organisations, and greater diversity in standard organisations. Whereas institutional theory has been applied to explain the convergence of standard setting bodies, past research has only examined standard settings heterogeneity that was determined by economic goals (David and Shurmer, 1996). This paper applies institutional theory to address both diversity and similarity in IT private standard consortia. We argue that there are homogenising forces in standard setting resulting from