Browsing by Subject "Industrial automation"

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Innovation und Standardsetzungskompetenz auf global integrierten Märkten
(2012) Slowak, André P.; Gerybadze, Alexander
Within this PhD thesis, we examine the interrelationship between joint innovation projects and standard setting for industry standards. This is a field of innovation research as well as research on the economics of standards that has been sadly neglected up to now. We investigate the core issue regarding what functions of system integration are fulfilled by industry standards for product systems and large systems. We define a product system as a set of components which achieve an essential functionality only in concert, but which the end user can still recognise as individual components. An architectural respective systemic standard dissects a joint technical system of standard setting partners into physical components and works in such a way that those system elements are simultaneously a) mutually compatible, b) mutually independent to as great an extent as possible and c) function in a variety of configurations. The automotive industry and industrial automation resorts to member layer models as a new type of organisation for standard setting partnerships/communities. A large number of members, dovetailing of joint innovation projects and structures aimed at rapid diffusion of standards set this type of organisation apart from conventional industry/standard setting consortia. Excellent standard governance is necessary in order to enable incumbents to establish dominant designs worldwide. We examine the cases of AUTOSAR, GENIVI and PROFIBUS in empirical case studies. In order to explain how standards are organised strategically, we deduce a configuration audit from the existing literature. Among other things, this thesis addresses exclusion from participation in standard setting, exclusion from access to specifications, the ownership of standards, IPR policies, the time reference of specifications with regard to dominant design, and standard setting methods (modular vs. integral). Furthermore, we describe the cultural differences between the German and the Japanese automotive industries in their approaches to project organisation in the pre-competition stage. We observe a geographic exclusion mechanism for the electro-mobility charging interface and/or in the case of CHAdeMO and in the user organisations of industrial automation: innovation activities are conducted in the country of origin. At the same time, R&D driven product competition involving the battery as the core component as well as standard setting competition for the charging interface to the battery is taking place in the emerging market for electric cars. The German OEMs are trying to establish their AC/DC combo charging system primarily through international formal standardisation. The Japanese industry is attempting to establish its DC charging system via the global market by way of the CHAdeMO standard setting partnership. The electro-mobility sector clearly demonstrates how industry is implementing a gradual system expansion starting on the basis of core components in order to offer solutions together with partners and not merely isolated products. We understand system expansion to mean step-by-step expansion of a product system: starting on the basis of core components, through integration of the suppliers of an incumbent (system integrator) into standard development, and also including integration of suppliers of complementary goods & peripheral system components. The integration of the latter means establishing a (large) innovation ecosystem. By contrast, the pigments and paint sector does not make use of any new type of organisation in the pre-competition stage. In that industry, innovation occurs within bilateral co-operation arrangements at the interface between two stages of the value-added chain. According to our accompanying observations, its formal standardisation activities primarily serve to prepare for new regulations, to influence them or to harmonise measurement methods among manufacturers. In our case studies, we observe system dynamics in multiple stages in conjunction with standard setting. We have depicted those dynamics in a system dynamics model. Our modelling is suitable as a starting point for simulation or agent-based approaches to standard setting for product systems. Moreover, future studies should describe additional cases from other business sectors where systemic innovation and standard setting are mutually interlinked as well. Technology leaders should try to dominate interfaces or core components of products systems on an industry-wide basis. In the pre-competition stage, it is possible to purposely exploit technical leadership in order to later on establish overall concepts through systemic standards.
Market field structure and dynamics in industrial automation
(2009) Slowak, André P.
There is a research tradition in the economics of standards which addresses standards wars, antitrust concerns or positive externalities from standards. Recent research has also dealt with the process characteristics of standardisation, de facto standard-setting consortia and intellectual property concerns in the technology specification or implementation phase. Nonetheless, there are no studies which analyse capabilities, comparative industry dynamics or incentive structures sufficiently in the context of standard-setting. In my study, I address the characteristics of collaborative research and standard-setting as a new mode of deploying assets beyond motivations well-known from R&D consortia or market alliances. On the basis of a case study of a leading user organisation in the market for industrial automation technology, but also a descriptive network analysis of cross-community affiliations, I demonstrate that there must be a paradoxical relationship between cooperation and competition. More precisely, I explain how there can be a dual relationship between value creation and value capture respecting exploration and exploitation. My case study emphasises the dynamics between knowledge stocks (knowledge alignment, narrowing and deepening) produced by collaborative standard setting and innovation; it also sheds light on an evolutional relationship between the exploration of assets and use cases and each firm's exploitation activities in the market. I derive standard-setting capabilities from an empirical analysis of membership structures, policies and incumbent firm characteristics in selected, but leading, user organisations. The results are as follows: the market for industrial automation technology is characterised by collaboration on standards, high technology influences of other industries and network effects on standards. Further, system integrators play a decisive role in value creation in the customer-specific business case. Standard-setting activities appear to be loosely coupled to the products offered on the market. Core leaders in world standards in industrial automation own a variety of assets and they are affiliated to many standard-setting communities rather than exclusively committed to a few standards. Furthermore, their R&D ratios outperform those of peripheral members and experience in standard-setting processes can be assumed. Standard-setting communities specify common core concepts as the basis for the development of each member's proprietary products, complementary technologies and industrial services. From a knowledge-based perspective, the targeted disclosure of certain knowledge can be used to achieve high innovation returns through systemic products which add proprietary features to open standards. Finally, the interplay between exploitation and exploration respecting the deployment of standard-setting capabilities linked to cooperative, pre-competitive processes leads to an evolution in common technology owned and exploited by the standard-setting community as a particular kind of innovation ecosystem.