PUBLIC ACTORS IN PRIVATE STANDARDIZATION: THE ROLE OF THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION IN MOBILE TELECOMS AND HIGH DEfiNITION TV STANDARDIZATION

This paper seeks to determine when and under what circumstances public Le. governmental or regulatory intervention facilitate or aggravates private standardization processes. It is commonly understood that public actors influence is rooted in the fact that they can select technical specifications for standards and subsidize or mandate and enforce compliance. At the same time, public actor intervention is considered to be constrained by significant information problems. However, the literature fails to acknowledge, a further major constraint, namely the fact that public actor intervention often tends to expose private standardization processes to political contestation. These constraints can be overcome, however, this paper argues, where public actors focus on the mobilization and facilitation of collective action in private standardization, rather than the selection, mandation or subsidization of specific technical specifications. This 'entrepreneurship' hypothesis is tested against empirical evidence from the European Commission's intervention in mobile telecoms and high-definition television standardization.