Standard (economy)

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In economics, a standard is the result of the standardization of comparable products or services from different manufacturers .

General

Competitors offer products or services with a similar functionality or purpose without first harmonizing them with other competitors . The result is a multitude of similar products or services that the consumer can hardly distinguish from one another. Often there is a lack of compatibility , which hinders the interchangeability of assemblies or components , for example . This interchangeability is even prevented by the lock-in effect in order to increase customer loyalty . In March 1954, for example, the color version of the US television standard NTSC came onto the market, but its standard did not establish itself in Europe, Asia and Australia. Either the German PAL system established here in January 1963 or the French Secam color system introduced in October 1967 . The different television standards ensured that televisions were only suitable for one television standard.

species

A distinction must be made between regulatory and coordinative standards . Regulatory standards should reduce or prevent negative external effects in products and production processes , and unhealthy or unsafe products should be banned. Standards that aim to internalize negative external effects are to be regarded as regulatory standards. This means that those actors are sanctioned who are responsible for negative effects. Since regulatory standards often appear in the form of limit values or guide values , it is easy to understand what is meant in practice: for example, the person responsible for exceeding limit values ​​is punished. For this reason, state action is necessary for the development and enforcement of a certain type. Due to the active role of the state, such a standard acquires a normative dimension and is therefore binding. The regulatory standards include, for example, safety regulations or environmental regulations .

Coordinative standards are based on jointly defined rules that competitors agree on or voluntarily join a standard. Coordinative standards (also compatibility standards ) aim to match several technical parts or systems. They are in turn divided into technical and transactional standards . The former aim to “establish and ensure the compatibility of components and the interoperationality of systems”. Transactional standards refer to legal systems such as “a standardized contract law , standardized accounting rules ... or uniform dimensions , weights or currencies ”.

Quality standards ensure uniform product or service quality at company level . They are monitored by quality management . Nationally and internationally, inter-company standardized franking , trade clauses and Incoterms help with the processing of trade .

International contract standards include the loan agreements issued by the Loan Market Association , the standards for transactions in over-the-counter trading published by the International Swaps and Derivatives Association or the provisions of the UN Sales Convention .

economic aspects

Market transparency suffers from a lack of standards because the consumer cannot easily judge whether complementary goods are technically / physically coordinated or not. The industry often encourages this process by producing perfect complements that can only be requested together. An example is the binding of a coffee machine to a coffee pod capsule standard, which forces the customer to purchase the associated pods or capsules from the same manufacturer.

The willingness of potential sources of negative externalities to develop regulatory standards is not very great. They become particularly involved - and then very hesitantly - when they do not want to be regulated by the standards set by the political bureaucracy. Coordinative standards are intended to generate positive externalities and reduce transaction costs , while regulatory standards contribute to the internalization of negative effects. Internalization means that the polluter is restricted in his actions or that he is made responsible for the consequences. Coordinative standards lead to the compatibility of components of a technical system.

Standards, especially open standards , contribute to the standardization of interfaces and products, which leads to larger markets, i.e. less market segmentation . Larger markets create more competition between providers; this in turn causes falling prices , higher sales figures, more research and development or more technical progress and a better balance between supply and demand (e.g. weaker price fluctuations when there are fluctuations in supply and / or demand).

The agreement of relevant standards shortens or simplifies contract negotiations and contracts. Only the creation of standards for interfaces between subsystems enables the efficient construction of complex systems consisting of them; especially when many of the subsystems change rapidly / significantly. A striking example is the PC (consisting of the hard disk, motherboard, memory, graphics card, etc.) subsystems. Because of the incentive to raise one's own product or technology as a standard if possible, competing standards have also emerged that solve roughly the same problem, but (paradoxically) lead to market segmentation due to incompatibility. These include, for example, VHS versus Betacam , DVD Forum versus DVD + RW Alliance or Blu-ray Disc versus HD DVD .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Raymund Werle, Standards in the international telecommunications regime , 2001, p. 8 ff.
  2. ↑ Gerold Ambrosius, regulatory competition and coordinative standardization between states , 2005, p. 53
  3. ↑ Raymund Werle, Standards in the international telecommunications regime , 2001, p. 8 ff.
  4. ↑ Jan-Kristoffer Clausen, The Japanese Automobile Industry and the Quality Management Standard QS-9000 , 2007, p. 8 f.
  5. ↑ Raymund Werle, Standards in the international telecommunications regime , 2001, p. 9
  6. ↑ Guido Hertel, Networked Administrations , 2001, p. 53
  7. ↑ Reiner Clement / Dirk Schreiber, Internet Economics. Basics and case studies of the networked economy , Springer-Verlag, 2010
  8. ↑ Gerold Ambrosius, regulatory competition and coordinative standardization between states , 2005, p. 136
  9. ↑ Gerold Ambrosius, regulatory competition and coordinative standardization between states , 2005, p. 136
  10. ↑ Hal R. Varian, Grundzüge der Mikroökonomik , 2011, p. 42
  11. ↑ Hans-Ulrich Hensche / Anke Schleyer / Christiane Wildraut, Possibilities and Limits of Sustainable Customer Loyalty in Direct Marketing of Agricultural Products in North Rhine-Westphalia , 2006, p. 9
  12. ^ Karl-Ernst Schenk, Yearbook for New Political Economy , Volume 16, 1997, p. 62
  13. ↑ Philipp Genschel, Standards in Information Technology: Institutional Change in International Standardization , 1995, p. 26