Platform Leadership
Two-Sided Network Effects: A Theory of Information Product Design
Management Science
Dynamic Mixed Duopoly: A Model Motivated by Linux vs. Windows
Management Science
Why Most Open Source Development Projects Do Not Succeed?
FLOSS '07 Proceedings of the First International Workshop on Emerging Trends in FLOSS Research and Development
The open source software phenomenon: Characteristics that promote research
The Journal of Strategic Information Systems
Electronic Commerce Research and Applications
Optimal strategies of IT consulting firms: the impact of license fee and open source
Proceedings of the 10th international conference on Electronic commerce
Design and Ownership of Two-Sided Networks: Implications for Internet Platforms
Journal of Management Information Systems
The Journal of Strategic Information Systems
An Economic Analysis of the Software Market with a Risk-Sharing Mechanism
International Journal of Electronic Commerce
Strategies to Fight Ad-Sponsored Rivals
Management Science
Diffusion dynamics of open source software: An agent-based computational economics (ACE) approach
Decision Support Systems
Management Science
Mobile networks as a two-sided platform: case open telco
Journal of Theoretical and Applied Electronic Commerce Research
Competing Matchmakers: An Experimental Analysis
Management Science
Competitive Strategy for Open Source Software
Marketing Science
Innovation and Price Competition in a Two-Sided Market
Journal of Management Information Systems
Organizational adoption of open source software
Journal of Systems and Software
Information Systems Research
(Hidden) social influences in switching mobile service platforms
Proceedings of the 14th Annual International Conference on Electronic Commerce
Competitive implications of software open-sourcing
Decision Support Systems
Motivations for Open Source Project Participation and Decisions of Software Developers
Computational Economics
International Journal of Open Source Software and Processes
Co-opetition Between Differentiated Platforms in Two-Sided Markets
Journal of Management Information Systems
First-Party Content and Coordination in Two-Sided Markets
Management Science
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Technology platforms, such as Microsoft Windows, are the hubs of technology industries. We develop a framework to characterize the optimal two-sided pricing strategy of a platform firm; that is, the pricing strategy toward the direct users of the platform as well as toward firms offering applications that are complementary to the platform. We compare industry structures based on a proprietary platform (such as Windows) with those based on an open source platform (such as Linux), and analyze the structure of competition and industry implications in terms of pricing, sales, profitability, and social welfare. We find that, when the platform is proprietary, the equilibrium prices for the platform, the applications, and the platform access fee for applications may be below marginal cost, and we characterize demand conditions that lead to this. The proprietary applications sector of an industry based on an open source platform may be more profitable than the total profits of a proprietary platform industry. When users have a strong preference for application variety, the total profits of the proprietary industry are larger than the total profits of an industry based on an open source platform. The variety of applications is larger when the platform is open source. When a system based on an open source platform with an independent proprietary application competes with a proprietary system, the proprietary system is likely to dominate the open source platform industry both in terms of market share and profitability. This may explain the dominance of Microsoft in the market for PC operating systems.