CIO Herds and User Gangs in the Adoption of Open Source Software
نویسندگان
چکیده
Open Source Software (OSS) has received wide attention from the research community, analyzing both the innovation process of software development by distributed and unrelated teams, and the market dynamics at play between “free” and proprietary software. Up until now, OSS adoption has been irregular, although it seems to be breaking the dominance of existing players in some market segments. In this paper, we contend that due to the particularities of its development process, traditional ways of explaining IT adoption -rational decision making, technology diffusion models, and the psychology of the decision makerare insufficient to explain the case of OSS diffusion. We believe that the existence of a strong and diffused development community leads to a new role of the user community, as both are intertwined. In addition, new concerns for social corporate responsibility and welfare create a new context, in which “user gangs” may exert some degrees of pressure on the IT decision maker. Through the analysis of some significant cases we depict under which conditions significant OSS adoption may unfold, showing that in two of the cases studied user gangs play a significant role. The resulting preliminary framework will inform future work, in which we aim at validating the emerging insights gained in this research.
منابع مشابه
Managing User Resistance to Open Source Migration
A large amount of resources and effort have been devoted to the development of open source software like Linux. The development of Linux as the most well-known open source software with graphical user interface and useful functionalities is expected to result in the high level of Linux adoption by individual users based on the technology adoption model. However, Linux has about one percent of t...
متن کاملExploring the Open Source Software Development Methology as Barrier to Adoption
The open source development methodology was seen by many as the development paradigm that would reshape the software industry as it boasted unique and unconventional characteristics that traditional development methodology could not match. However, despite all its potentials, the adoption of open source software at the end-user level remains moderate or at least failed to keep pace with the ini...
متن کاملEarly Dynamics of Open Source Software Projects: Exploratory Studies of Team Formation and User Adoption
متن کامل
Open Source Adoption and Use: A Comparative Study Between Groups in the US and India
Open source software communities work in a loosely knit organizational structure that works primarily on the motivations of gift and contribution of source code. They communicate using modern Internet-based applications and organize themselves into self-guided virtual communities. Several methods of collaboration and development of intellectual property through software within these communities...
متن کاملAdoption and user perceptions of Koha library management system in India
Adoption and use of open source library management systems in Indian libraries is gaining momentum. Koha is the first free and open source library automation package. Its excellent features have made it popular among the user community within a short span of time. This paper provides a brief picture of Koha software adoption and the users’ perceptions about it in the Indian library scenario and...
متن کامل