1c. Roland Ortt-Paper

There is controversy among scientists whether standards and regulations hamper or stimulate innovation. We investigate the direct effect of standards and regulations on the development and diffusion of radically new high-tech products. The radicalness and degree of inter-relatedness of the technology in these products are found to moderate this direct effect. The focus is on pre-existing standards and regulations, i.e., the standards and regulations available in the industry prior to the development and diffusion of the products and therefore also not specific for these products. The effect on development and diffusion is assessed in terms of the time interval between the invention of a technological principle and the introduction of the first marketable product based on that principle (development phase), and the successive time interval that covers the period up to the start of industrial production and large-scale diffusion (adaptation phase). We analyse fifty heterogeneous cases of radically new high-tech products from the year 1850 onward. Our results indicate that pre-existing standards and regulations significantly shorten the adaptation phase; this effect is not found for the development phase. The effect on the adaptation phase is moderated by the radicalness and the interrelatedness of the technological system required for the product. That is, pre-existing standards and regulations shorten the adaptation phase in particular for products that are part of radically new (at the time of their introduction) and interrelated technological systems. As the adaptation phase is often a timeand capital-intensive phase for industry, this accelerating effect on the diffusion is highly relevant for innovation managers and policy makers.