Open Source Software Companies Research Articles

How Software Quality Mediates the Impact of Intellectual Capital on Commercial Open-Source Software Company Success

The recent surge in the number of commercial open-source software (COSS) companies shows the growing importance of COSS companies in the software industry. As knowledge-based firms, COSS companies’ success depends heavily on the interplay among intangible resources such as human capital, relational capital, structural capital, and software quality. To observe these relationships, we conducted a hypothesis-testing questionnaire-type survey involving 200 software development experts and users working at 60 multinational COSS companies. Accordingly, the study unearthed two different but conjoint ways (i.e., direct and indirect) in which intellectual capital impacts COSS company’s success. On the one hand, relational capital one of the intellectual capital components directly affects COSS company success. One the other hand, relational and structural capital indirectly affect COSS company success through human capital, which, in turn, is itself mediated by software quality in a sequential mediation model. Therefore, COSS companies may need to prioritize software quality as it is the most critical variable impacting the success of COSS companies.

A Conversation with Margo Seltzer and Mike Olson

Kirk McKusick sat down with Margo Seltzer and Mike Olson to discuss the history of Berkeley DB, for which they won the ACM Software System Award in 2021. Kirk McKusick has spent his career as a BSD and FreeBSD developer. Margo Seltzer has spent her career as a professor of computer science and as an entrepreneur of database software companies. Mike Olson started his career as a software developer and later started and managed several open-source software companies. Berkeley DB is a production-quality, scalable, NoSQL, Open Source platform for embedded transactional data management.

How do Open Source software companies respond to institutional pressures? A business model perspective

PurposeOpen Source software companies (OSSCs) are confronted with institutional pressures from Open Source software (OSS) communities. They must find an acceptable balance between the expectations of these communities and their own business model. However, there are still few studies that try to analyse the OSSC business models. The purpose of this paper is to highlight OSSC typical business models by using rich empirical data.Design/methodology/approachThe methodology is based on a combination of quantitative analysis of a sample of 66 OSSCs and qualitative analysis of three typical situations resulting from that sample.FindingsThe quantitative study enables the authors to highlight three typical business models. The in-depth study of three typical cases enables the authors to specify these OSSC business models. The authors can distinguish four key dimensions: the relationship developed with the OSS communities, the strategic manoeuvres made, the key resources and competitive positioning.Research limitations/implicationsThe results indicate that it is possible for firms to accommodate both profit and non-profit logics using different strategic manoeuvres to position themselves with regard to the Open Source institutional environment. Such accommodation requires the development of key resources and the adoption of suitable competitive positioning.Practical implicationsThis study allows the authors to highlight two main practical contributions for OSSCs’ directors. First, the different manoeuvres identified may help them to ensure coherence between their strategic choices and the business model chosen. Second, the results can help OSSC founders identify value creation mechanisms more clearly by analysing four key variables.Originality/valueThis paper provides new insight about OSSCs business models. It aggregates four dimensions that provide a more “fine-grained” analysis of business models, while other studies often emphasise one dimension (usually the regime of appropriability).

Roundtable on Cloud, Fog, Networks and Related Technologies

The Pacific Telecommunications Council - a non-profit dedicated to variety of ICT technologies - is about to celebrate its fortieth year. Earlier this year, a far-reaching executive insight roundtable discussion re-viewed the intersection of emerging trends in cloud, fog/edge, IoT, and networks. Participants spanned a variety of industries, including cloud SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS firms, mobile and landline operators, colocation and interconnection firms, open source soft-ware companies, and industry and financial analysts and investors.

Career in Open Source? Relevant Competencies for Successful Open Source Developers / Karriere in Open Source? Relevante Kompetenzen für erfolgreiche Open Source Entwickler

Summary Open Source (OS) offers new ways of career for software developers. The article describes relevant competencies in a systematic structure along characteristic principles and challenges in Open Source projects. The results are based on a Grounded Theory content analysis of interviews with Open Source software developers, their project managers and human resource managers in Open Source software companies. Implications for future Human Resource Management in software companies are presented as an outlook.

Factors affecting open technological innovation in open source software companies in Korea

Open source software (OSS) is a rapidly growing method of collaborative technology development. Yet there has been little quantitative research into the specific innovativeness of the OSS industry that seeks to address the question of whether such collaborative processes are also correlated with increased innovative activity. Using survey data from Korean OSS firms, this paper seeks to analyze the decisive factors in the open technological innovation activity of the OSS industry. Building on this analysis, we discuss the policy significance of OSS in fostering capacity intensification of technological innovation.

Adaption of Linux SSL servers across cultures

Linux has received significant attention worldwide, but differences in its adoption across countries has gained less interest. This paper aims to fill this gap by investigating the proportion of Linux among SSL servers in the Internet. The findings of this research question earlier findings concerning the influence of culture on adoption of technology. Findings of this research could be useful for both proprietary and open source software companies. Likewise, by understanding the influence of culture on Linux adoption, OSS communities can adjust their activities to gain optimum international operations.

Relationships between open source software companies and communities: Observations from Nordic firms

This paper deals with the relationships between firms and communities in open source software (OSS). A particular feature of OSS is that important resources are not directly controlled by firms, but partly reside within communities that co-exist with the firms. Despite this, firms explicitly try to utilize the resources within these communities in order to create and appropriate value. Consequently, the relationships that firms have to these communities influence their way of doing business. Based on case studies of Nordic OSS firms, a typology consisting of symbiotic, commensalistic, and parasitic approaches to handle the firm–community relationship is developed. Depending on the chosen approach, firms encounter different managerial issues and also use different operational means of subtle control. While firms relying on a symbiotic approach have greater possibility to influence the community through subtle means of control, they are also confronted with more challenging managerial issues.