Abstract
The article attempts to elucidate why incumbent leading standard setters lose their grounds through technology spillovers in the surge of standardization. We conduct the analysis of patent forward citations from essential patents (SEP), which are declared linked with standard specifications, to proprietary patents in the telecommunication industry. The results show that by assimilating relevant knowledge from leading standard setters, semiconductor suppliers attempt to build their knowledge mainly related to “interface” between telecommunication systems and mobile phones. The results also reveal that a major semiconductor supplier, Qualcomm, plays as a hub which accelerates the knowledge spillovers from leading standard setters to other semiconductor suppliers. These findings are expected to expand the debates of standard setters' knowledge management and provide managerial implications for practitioners.
