Lorraine Morgan

Open innovation in secondary software firms: an exploration of managers' perceptions of open source software

Open source software (OSS) is probably the best known exemplar of open innovation, with many practitioner-oriented publications having debated the merits and drawbacks of OSS in recent years. Nevertheless, much of the academic research on OSS has focused on individual rather than organizational issues. Hence while there is some understanding of why individual developers and users opt for particular OSS applications, relatively little is known about the adoption of OSS as a software acquisition policy. This paper presents a study of 13 managers in the secondary software sector in Europe, and examines how their perceptions of the benefits and drawbacks of OSS affected their decision to adopt an open source policy for software in their companies. The study reveals how their perceptions of the business and technical benefits and drawbacks of OSS influenced the technological, organizational, environmental and individual factors considered within the adoption process. The findings reveal that many of these factors are similar to those reported by previous work on the adoption of innovation, leading us to conclude that organizational processes for the adoption of open innovation are reliant on the practices for closed innovation despite frequently cited loss of organizational control associated with open innovation.

Smart City as a Service (SCaaS): A Future Roadmap for E-Government Smart City Cloud Computing Initiatives

The concept of a smart city has been identified as not only representing a crucible for technological innovation, a medium for realizing global integration but also as an exemplar response for addressing current and impending global issues (societal, environmental economic and governance). There is now general consensus that emerging information communication technologies (ICT) such as cloud computing can be deployed as a vehicle for catalyzing smart city innovation. There is also evidence to suggest that cloud computing has become a strategic direction for many e-government initiatives as evidenced by the emergence of global government clouds (G-Cloud). In this paper, we delineate the concept of a smart city and explore the propitious potential of cloud computing to enable the development of smart cities. We review the current state of the art pertaining to a selection of cloud schemes currently being operationalized by international governments aimed at capitalizing on the nascent innovation capabilities of the technological paradigm, and present a future research roadmap for cloud facilitated smart city development.

Benefits and Drawbacks of Open Source Software: An Exploratory Study of Secondary Software Firms

Much of the assessment of OSS benefits and drawbacks has been based on anecdotal evidence appearing in practitioner publications, white papers, web articles etc. To a greater extent this research has tended to concentrate more on the technical benefits and drawbacks of OSS rather than their business counterparts. Furthermore, public administrations and companies operating within the primary software sector have traditionally been the focus for research on OSS benefits and drawbacks. Taking the viewpoint of IS/IT managers in 13 companies operating in the secondary software sector in Europe, this paper examines their experiences of the benefits/drawbacks of OSS.

Exploring value networks: theorising the creation and capture of value with open source software

The emergence of open source software (OSS) as a form of peer production and innovation challenges theories of organisation and strategy due to its non-reliance on traditional governance mechanisms to organise production. OSS requires firms to rethink the processes that facilitate value creation and capture. The objective of this paper is to theorise how firms create and capture value from OSS. We derive a model from extant research and refine it through the study of three inter-organisational networks. The findings reveal how a firms ability to access a value network of complementors is crucial for effective value creation and capture. Two types of networks are evident: a high-density network of familiar partners and a low-density network of multiple, often unfamiliar, partners. Leveraging these networks depends on the level of commitment, volume of knowledge exchange and the alignment of objectives among participant firms. Effective governance is revealed as critical for creating and capturing value within both types of network; and depends on both formal and informal mechanisms.

Key Factors Impacting Cloud Computing Adoption

Findings from multiple cloud provider case studies identify 9 key factors and 15 subfactors affecting the adoption of cloud technology. These range from technological issues to broader organizational and environmental issues.

Future Research in Agile Systems Development: Applying Open Innovation Principles Within the Agile Organisation

A particular strength of agile approaches is that they move away from ‘introverted’ development and intimately involve the customer in all areas of development, supposedly leading to the development of a more innovative and hence more valuable information system. However, we argue that a single customer representative is too narrow a focus to adopt and that involvement of stakeholders beyond the software development itself is still often quite weak and in some cases non-existent. In response, we argue that current thinking regarding innovation in agile development needs to be extended to include multiple stakeholders outside the business unit. This paper explores the intra-organisational applicability and implications of open innovation in agile systems development. Additionally, it argues for a different perspective of project management that includes collaboration and knowledge-sharing with other business units, customers, partners, and other relevant stakeholders pertinent to the business success of an organisation, thus embracing open innovation principles.

Software Startups - A Research Agenda

Software startup companies develop innovative, software-intensive products within limited timeframes and with few resources, searching for sustainable and scalable business models. Software startup ...

Deciding on open innovation: an exploration of how firms create and capture value with open source software

Open innovation is a paradigm that proposes that firms can and should use external as well as internal innovations/ideas. A popular example of open innovation has been open source software (OSS). The key issues facing organizational decision makers considering OSS strategies is, how does the firm create value for the customer while simultaneously extracting value for itself? However, the adoption of OSS as part of an open innovation strategy is a recent phenomenon and many unanswered questions remain. Taking the viewpoint of seven IS/IT decision makers in European firms, this paper reveals how decision makers considered aspects of value creation, capture, and networking in making decisions on adopting open source software. The findings reveal that while decision makers look to open innovation for value creation and capture, there is still a desire to remain self reliant, resulting in collaborative design (of external innovations) rather than collaborative decision making with value network partners in relation to how such innovations would help create and capture value within firms.

Measuring the crowd: a preliminary taxonomy of crowdsourcing metrics

Crowdsourcing initiatives benefit from tapping into diversity. A vast plethora of disparate individuals, organizations, frameworks and skillsets can all play a role in sourcing solutions to a challenge. Nevertheless, while crowdsourcing has become a pervasive phenomenon, there is a paucity of research that addresses how the crowdsourcing process is measured. Whereas research has advanced various taxonomies of crowdsourcing none to date have specifically addressed the issue of measuring either specific stages of the crowdsourcing process or the process as a whole. As a first step towards achieving this goal, this research-in-progress paper examines crowdsourcing at the operational level with a view towards (i) identifying the parts of the process (ii) identifying what can be measured and (iii) categorising operational metrics to facilitate deployment in practice. The taxonomy advanced is overarching in nature and can be deployed across disciplines. Furthermore, the preliminary taxonomy presented will offer practitioners a comprehensive list of metrics that will enable them to facilitate comparison across various crowdsourcing initiatives.

“Openness” with and without Information Technology: a framework and a brief history

Over the past two decades, openness (e.g. ‘open’ innovation, ‘open’ education and ‘open’ strategy) has been of increasing interest for researchers and of increasing relevance to practitioners. Openness is often deeply embedded in information technology (IT) and can be both a driver for and a result of innovative IT. To clarify the concept of “openness”, we provide an overview of the scope of cross-disciplinary research on openness. Based on this overview, we develop a framework of openness, which proposes a higher-order concept of “openness” characterised by transparency, access, participation and democracy. The framework further distinguishes open resources, open processes and the effects of opening on particular domains. To provide the historical context and to appreciate the role of IT in openness, we discuss two historical examples of openness: the introduction of an open science model in academia (openness without IT) and the emergence of open source software development (openness with IT). We conclude by highlighting some concerns with and limitations of “openness”.