“Standardisation in Companies and Markets”, by W. Hesser, A. Feilzer, H. de Vries, et al. Helmut Schmidt University Germany and Erasmus University of Rotterdam, Netherlands, October 2010, 3rd Edition.

“Standardization in Companies and Markets” is over 1100 pages of material relating to standardization – the process or processes of creating standards. The European Union (EU), more so than other organizations of nation-states, has actively invested in standardization for the purpose of better integrating the economies of the individual EU countries.  Some countries (e.g., China) focus on standardization as a potential form of market control. Countries transitioning from under developed to more fully developed have historic reasons to see standardization as a form of market control. Some countries (e.g., USA) consider standardization, beyond health and safety requirements, as a commercial activity. Treating standardization as a commercial activity with minimum government intervention reduces the culpability of any government in market control. Most of the 25 chapters in “Standardization in Companies and Markets” focus on the EU view of standardization, but the other views of standardization are  presented and some consideration of approaches to integrate these three different standardization views is presented.