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These cooperative efforts are based, I contend, on collective investment criteria shared by both companies and individual participants. companies expect long-term benefits stemming not only from their early access to information about the proposed changes in product design, but also from the extent they can influence the outcome in ways that reduce their costs and accommodate their product design and manufacture requirements. Individual participants expect to benefit professionally from the knowledge exchanges taking place in the deliberations. I illustrate my argument through a case study in the development of a family of safety standards for agricultural tractors. The study shows that, in setting these standards, participants sought and achieved ways of making their proposed changes in product design more compatible with a changing legal order. The study also shows, however, that collective action may bring some unintended consequences. 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