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A Licensing and Business Model for Sharing Source Code with Clients—Leveraging Open Client Innovation in the Proprietary World

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Book cover Software Business (ICSOB 2010)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing ((LNBIP,volume 51))

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Abstract

While the pure-form open source model has been in the focus of much information systems research recently, research is lacking on truly hybrid software licensing models that combine limited openness of source code with traditional value appropriation logic. Yet such boundedly open models are implied by open innovation literature and by the recent emphasis on client involvement therein. The further amalgamation of traditional proprietary software licensing with open source licensing can be rationalised through commodification of software, shift from products to services, the viability of the pure-form open source model, and the continuing need for better operational efficiency. After reviewing other hybrid-OSS models, a very practical hybrid licensing model is presented that responds to the need of software vendors in various vertical domains. Its benefits and limitations are discussed, and it is positioned relative to the value co-production (co-creation) literature. A set of research questions are raised to the information systems research agenda.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Helsinki School of Economics, Aalto University, P.O. Box 1210, FIN-00101, Helsinki, Finland

    Mikko Riepula

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  1. Mikko Riepula
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Jyväskylä, PO Box 35, 40014, Finland

    Pasi Tyrväinen

  2. IUtrecht University, PO Box 80.089, 3508TB, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Slinger Jansen

  3. MIT Sloan School of Management, 50 Memorial Drive, 02142-1347, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Michael A. Cusumano

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Riepula, M. (2010). A Licensing and Business Model for Sharing Source Code with Clients—Leveraging Open Client Innovation in the Proprietary World. In: Tyrväinen, P., Jansen, S., Cusumano, M.A. (eds) Software Business. ICSOB 2010. Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing, vol 51. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-13633-7_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-13633-7_2

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-13632-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-13633-7

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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