Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/63799 
Authors: 
Year of Publication: 
2007
Series/Report no.: 
ETLA Discussion Papers No. 1102
Publisher: 
The Research Institute of the Finnish Economy (ETLA), Helsinki
Abstract: 
This paper addresses the question of the software companies’ timing of adoption of the open source software (OSS) business models comprising the supply of OSS products and/or services. The game-theoretic technology adoption models do not explain well the observed diffusion patterns of the OSS business model among the sample of 716 European software firms. Instead, it seems that the network effects influentially shape the diffusion path of the OSS supply strategies. Our study further contributes to the technology diffusion literature as our econometric model aims at separating, unlike the previous empirical studies on technology diffusion, the role that the replacement effect has in the diffusion patterns of new technologies. Our data detect a clear replacement effect hindering the incumbents’ investments in new technology. The expected price declines of the computer programs – and thus the expected declining license revenues from the proprietary software – accelerate less the incumbent firms’ timing of adoption of the OSS supply model than that of the entrants.
Subjects: 
timing of technology adoption, diffusion, open source software, business models
JEL: 
C41
D21
D23
L2
L86
O14
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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