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Article ID: CBB136746708

The Business of Internetworking: Standards, Start-Ups, and Network Effects (Spring 2022)

Russell, Andrew Lawrence (Author)
James L. Pelkey (Author)
Loring Robbins (Author)

Business History Review
Volume: 96
Issue: 1
Pages: 109-144

URI: http://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/business-history-review/article/business-of-internetworking-standards-startups-and-network-effects/7C91F270A57FE6DD315803D908682014

DOI: 10.1017/S000768052100074X

Publication Date: Spring 2022
Edition Details: Special issue on Standards and the Global Economy
Language: English

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Business history Computers and computing Computer networks Internet Telecommunications industry Regulation Standards and standardization 20th century

Historical accounts of the Internet's origins tend to emphasize U.S. government investment and university-based researchers. In contrast, this article introduces actors who have been overlooked: the entrepreneurs and private firms that developed standards, evaluated competing standards, educated consumers about the value of new products, and built products to sell. Start-up companies such as 3Com and Cisco Systems succeeded because they met rapidly rising demand from users, particularly those in large organizations, who were connecting computers into networks and networks into internetworks. We consider a relatively brief yet dynamic period, from the late 1960s to the late 1980s, when regulators attacked incumbent American firms, entrepreneurs flourished in new market niches, and engineers set industry standards for networking and internetworking. As a consequence, their combined efforts forged new processes and institutions for so-called open standards that, in turn, created the conditions favorable for the “network effects” that sustained the formative years of the digital economy.

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Associated with

Article Yates, JoAnne; Murphy, Craig N. (Spring 2022) Introduction: Standards and the Global Economy. Business History Review (pp. 3-15). unapi

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https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB136746708/

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