Institutional entrepreneurship in the sponsorship of common technological standards: The case of Sun Microsystems and Java

• 成果类型: Review
• 署名作者: Garud, R; Jain, S; Kumaraswamy, A
• 署名单位: New York University; University of Wisconsin System; University of Wisconsin Madison; Rutgers University System; Rutgers University New Brunswick; Rutgers University Camden
• 刊物名称: ACADEMY OF MANAGEMENT JOURNAL
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0001-4273
• DOI: 10.5465/3069292
• 发表日期: 2002
• 页码: 196-214
• 关键词: organizations; Embeddedness; INNOVATION; CONSTRUCTION; COMPETITION; EVOLUTION; DYNAMICS; industry

摘要

The institutional entrepreneurship implicit in a firm's sponsorship of its technology as a common standard is beset by several challenges. These challenges arise from a standard's property to enable and constrain even as potential competitors agree to cooperate on its creation. Our exploration of Sun Microsystems's sponsorship of its Java technology suggests that standards in the making generate seeds of self-destruction. Our study also identifies the social and political skills that a sponsor deploys to address these challenges.