Interplay of innovation and standardization: Exploring the relevance in developing countries

•A conceptual model of standards and innovation in developing countries is drawn.•Standardization facilitates innovation by scaling, proving and coordinating.•The government complements the weak technological capabilities of other actors.•A gap between the goals of economic growth and those of social development exists.

A growing body of literature recognizes the positive interplay between innovation and standardization. International organizations such as OECD and WTO also increase support for developing countries in building capabilities in innovation and standardization. Yet the relationship between innovation and standardization in developing countries, characterized by relatively weaker technological, economic and institutional capacities, remain under-researched. We review 63 articles extracted from the Web of Science database covering the innovation-standardization nexus in the context of developing countries. We discuss whether and how the relationship between innovation and standardization provides implications for the socioeconomic development in developing countries, and draw a conceptual model to understand the dynamics. Our result shows that standards facilitate innovation in three ways: innovation by scaling, proving and coordinating. While inducing and blocking mechanisms are at play, various stakeholders are involved in the relationship. Among them, the roles of the government and the technology/industry support organizations are highlighted, as they complement the relatively weak technological capabilities of other actors. In contrast to the existing literature on developed countries where standardization is depicted as a dynamic process to shape the innovation path, the current discussion on developing countries is skewed toward the adoption aspect of standards. We also suggest that there is a chasm between the goals of economic growth and those of social development.