An investigation into sources of network externalities in the packaged PC software market
Information Economics and Policy
Information rules: a strategic guide to the network economy
Information rules: a strategic guide to the network economy
A framework analysis of the open source software development paradigm
ICIS '00 Proceedings of the twenty first international conference on Information systems
The cathedral and the bazaar: musings on Linux and open source by an accidental revolutionary
The cathedral and the bazaar: musings on Linux and open source by an accidental revolutionary
Managing your total IT cost of ownership
Communications of the ACM - Internet abuse in the workplace and Game engines in scientific research
Understanding open source software development
Understanding open source software development
Reflections on free and open software
Communications of the ACM - Voting systems
Perspectives on Free and Open Source Software
Perspectives on Free and Open Source Software
The Promise of Research on Open Source Software
Management Science
Dynamic Mixed Duopoly: A Model Motivated by Linux vs. Windows
Management Science
Network Effects and Technology Licensing with Fixed Fee, Royalty, and Hybrid Contracts
Journal of Management Information Systems
Journal of Systems and Software
Diffusion dynamics of open source software: An agent-based computational economics (ACE) approach
Decision Support Systems
An Initial Examination of Free and Proprietary Software-Selection in Organizations
International Journal of Web Portals
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Despite the availability of source code, deploying open source software in an enterprise environment requires skills. Recent surveys and case studies show that the skills of IT staff in an organization are one of the key factors in open source software adoption decisions. Another important factor organizations consider when choosing a platform is network effects. This paper studies how users' skills and network effects may influence the market where proprietary software competes with open source software. In the model, users make adoption decisions considering their own skills and the network effects of the software, and the proprietary software vendor prices its product strategically. It is found that in the presence of network effects, the proprietary software dominates the market when the open source software does not provide higher benefits to users. This implies that open source software, as a low-cost substitute to proprietary software, may not survive in a market exhibiting network effects. To gain market share, open source software has to outperform proprietary software by a large margin, which can be achieved when a significant portion of users are highly skilled and thus can customize the open source software to better satisfy their needs.