2.1. Concept of Standards and Standardisation

Generally, and highly simplified, the story goes like this. Some actors (e.g., companies, alliances of companies and organizations, research institutes, universities, and many other types of organizations) have a problem and need, for many distinct reasons, to find a solution with others. Some organizations – let’s call them standardisation organizations – provide a place and a specific framework (e.g., rules, process, project management) for actors to develop a joint solution. Finding a solution to common problems with others can happen outside the organization for standardisation. A company can create a joint solution by directly inviting other companies; this standardisation is often called standardisation based on cooperation.
Sometimes actors create their own alliances in specific sectors and act by their own rules – that is the case of Consortia-based standardisation. However, the story is more complicated and much more interesting. Without standards, world trade will be impossible because “standards control access to virtually every market in global commerce and directly affect more than eighty per cent of world trade” (Purcell & Kushnier, 2016). There are many active standards organizations
5 with thousands of members who develop tens of thousands of standards every year (Baron & Spulber, 2018). Some standardisation organizations provide a place for agreeing on solutions based on a consensus of many actors and are open to all actors interested in a solution. In those organizations, participation in standards development is voluntary, and the use of standards is voluntary. Due to their way of work and following principles of transparency, openness, impartiality and consensus, effectiveness and relevance, coherence, and the development dimension6 – those organizations are often called voluntary consensus-based organizations for standardisation. All standardisation activities begin when some actor(s) propose a solution to others. Then through the process,
they come to a solution acceptable to everyone. Standards are not necessarily an expression of the highest expertise or requirements but rather an expression of what the parties involved could agree upon (Madelung & Andersen, 2013). That is why it is often said that standards do not contain the best practice or solutions for every participating actor but rather those with the highest degree of agreement – possible – at that moment.