Innovation and Standardization: Oxymoron or Pleonasm?

Although the importance of innovation and standardization (I&S) of technology is well understood in the information and communications technology (ICT) community, there is a lack of awareness of the definitions of I&S, the relationship between I&S, and popular theories of I&S. The IEEE Communications Society´s Emerging Technical Subcommittee on Innovations and Standards in Information and Communication Technology (ISICT) recently conducted a survey that captures the current state of awareness of I&S theories in the ICT community. The survey is intended to help understand the problems that hinder popular adoption of I&S theories in mainstream industry and academic research processes. This paper analyzes the results of the survey to achieve two goals, namely, to quantify the problems and challenges encountered in understanding and studying I&S in ICT and to identify potential solutions to address the problems.