Cost-Benefit Analysis of Participation in Standardization: Developing a Calculation Tool

Participation in standardization costs time and thus money and additionally there are out of pocket costs. Is it worth this investment? This paper seeks to develop and test a method to calculate cost and benefits of participation. Companies can use such a calculation to prepare a decision whether or not to join, during the process whether or not to continue, and afterwards to evaluate if the overall benefits outweigh the cost. Academic researchers can use the same method to analyze impacts of standardization projects.