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In this paper, we explore the relationship between firms' approaches to open innovation and their decision to participate in Standardization alliances. Based on micro data of Dutch Companies surveyed in the Forth Community Innovation Survey we show that the importance of extemal knowledge is positively correlated with participation in Standardization. This suggests that firms aim to access the knowledge of other Companies and stakeholders in Order to increase their own knowledge base. The analysis also shows that firms cooperating with different actors are more likely to join Standardization. Due to the positive relationships with incoming knowledge spillovers and forms of Cooperation, we conclude that Standardization represents a specific form of collaborative knowledge-sharing and knowledge-creating strategy. In addition, we are able to show that absorptive capacity measured via Companies’ research intensity is promoting the involvement in Standardization. Besides the focus on knowledge and Cooperation variables, we explore the traditionally considered factors for alliances Formation and show that firm size, export activities and patent protection are positively correlated with participation in Standardization.
Using a new database on Standards in China, we estimate the impact of voluntaiy and mandatory Standards - either harmonized to international norms or purely domestic — on Chinese food exports. The data covers seven Chinese products over the period 1992-2008. We find that Standards have a positive effect on China's export performance, as the benefits to Standardization in terms of reducing potential Information asymmetiy and signaling enhance food safety and quality in foreign markets seem to surpass compliance costs. Our estimation results Show that the positive effect of Chinese Standards is larger when they are harmonized to international measures. The results suggest that there are clear benefits to China’s Steps to base their domestic Standards and regulations on international measures.
We use a new database of food producing firms to explain different outcomes of third party certification audits across firms. The database from the retailer-initiated certification scheme of the International Featured Standard (IFS) includes auditing reports from more than 13,000 firms producing in 96 countries over the period 2011 to 2013. Information on each firms' conformance with the private standard require-ments as well as company specific characteristics such as branch, region, past experience with the standard and firm size is provided. While the previous literature emphasizes the role of auditor independence for differing audit results, we suggest that company specific variables play an important role. In our empirical analysis, we find a U-shaped relationship between firm size and performance: microenter-prises and large companies are more likely to conform to the requirements of the standard than small to medium sized companies – confirming our predictions from organizational theory. We conclude our research with suggestions for further re-search.
We base our paper on data from a global company survey of certified companies carried out by the International Accreditation Forum (IAF) in 2010/11. We use multivariate Probit and ordered Probit models to analyze how company internal and external factors influence the perception of benefits from accredited certification. Benefits from accredited certification are divided into added value for the organization, increased sales and regulatory compliance. As for company external factors, we find that benefits from certification are higher for companies that went through a challenging certification process, had a competent certification body team, and are aware of the importance of accreditation. Internal factors are related to different motives for seeking certification. We find that the benefits from accredited certification are largest when companies become certified in order to improve their own business performance. Dividing our sample in high-income and middle income countries shows that the latter put more emphasis on company internal improvement through certification and are more likely to benefit from certification when they employ an external consultant. Finally, we can show that benefits are unequally distributed among companies. That is, smaller companies have a lower probability to benefit from certification compared to larger companies.