The information technology (IT) industry is characterized by rapid innovation and intense competition. To survive, IT firms must develop high quality software products on time and at low cost. A key issue is whether high levels of quality can be achieved without adversely impacting cycle time...

Theoretical and empirical evidence suggest that in many markets with standards competition, network effects make the strong grow stronger and can “tip” the market toward a single, winner-take-all standard. We hypothesize, however, that this sort of standards-induced market dominance may be...