Charles Le Maistre: Entrepreneur in International Standardization

Abstract

In Schumpeterian terms, entrepreneurship is a force of creative destruction, and entrepreneurs are risk-takers who pioneer an innovation - typically a technological innovation but also possibly an organizational innovation. Such entrepreneurs are often true-believers in the innovation, and proselytize for it in the marketplace and sometimes, in the case of what are today called intrapreneurs, within an organizational hierarchy. On this panel, we argue that industrial standardization, usually thought of as a staid field that limits, rather than promotes, innovation, is populated by multiple individuals who can be seen as entrepreneurs of standardization, either in a particular technical arena or on a broader, organizational level.

Keywords: entrepreneurs, standardization