How do standards committees affect the success of a standard? Comparative analysis of RCS and VoLTE and proposed hybrid standards development model of open and bandwagon approaches

Abstract

Standards have become enablers of complex digital systems that provide a foundation for the present-day digital economy. While existing literature analyzes the factors behind the dominance of one standard over another, there has been little focus on the standards committees that define the standards. This study comparatively analyzes the case of the Rich Communication Services (RCS) and Voice over LTE (VoLTE) standards to examine the characteristics of standards committees. The findings provide lessons learned for standards committees, including non-tiered open membership, and sufficient depth of specifications. Most importantly, a new model is proposed for standards development, based on which the standards committee focuses on technical specifications with open membership, while industry consortia focus on commercial profiling of the technical specifications with the lead of influential players. The new model is expected to resolve the tradeoff between the development speed and stability of communications standards. © 2022 Elsevier Ltd