CIO herds and user gangs in the adoption of open source software

Open Source Software (OSS) has received wide attention from the research community, analyzing both the innovation process of software development by distributed and unrelated teams, and the market dynamics at play between "free" and proprietary software. Up until now, OSS adoption has been irregular, although it seems to be breaking the dominance of existing players in some market segments. In this paper, we contend that due to the particularities of its development process, traditional ways of explaining IT adoption -rational decision making, technology diffusion models, and the psychology of the decision maker- are insufficient to explain the case of OSS diffusion. We believe that the existence of a strong and diffused development community leads to a new role of the user community, as both are intertwined. In addition, new concerns for social corporate responsibility and welfare create a new context, in which "user gangs" may exert some degrees of pressure on the IT decision maker. By analyzing some significant cases we depict under what conditions significant OSS adoption may unfold, showing that in two of the cases studied user gangs play a significant role. The resulting preliminary framework will inform future work, in which we aim at validating the emerging insights gained in this research.Open source software; IT adoption; user communities; CIO herding;

CIO Herds and User Gangs in the Adoption of Open Source Software

Open Source Software (OSS) has received wide attention from the research community, analyzing both the innovation process of software development by distributed and unrelated teams, and the market dynamics at play between “free” and proprietary software. Up until now, OSS adoption has been irregular, although it seems to be breaking the dominance of existing players in some market segments. In this paper, we contend that due to the particularities of its development process, traditional ways of explaining IT adoption -rational decision making, technology diffusion models, and the psychology of the decision maker- are insufficient to explain the case of OSS diffusion. We believe that the existence of a strong and diffused development community leads to a new role of the user community, as both are intertwined. In addition, new concerns for social corporate responsibility and welfare create a new context, in which “user gangs” may exert some degrees of pressure on the IT decision maker. Through the analysis of some significant cases we depict under which conditions significant OSS adoption may unfold, showing that in two of the cases studied user gangs play a significant role. The resulting preliminary framework will inform future work, in which we aim at validating the emerging insights gained in this research

Factors Influencing Adoption of Open Source Software - An Exploratory Study

Open Source Software (OSS), an example of an IS innovation, provides an alternative to proprietary software for organizations. Despite its free availability, OSS has not been universally adopted. While IS innovation has been extensively studied, there is a dearth of research literature on the adoption of OSS. Using a multi-site case study research method and a well known framework on the adoption of IS innovations, we explore this novel phenomenon and uncover critical factors that influence the adoption of OSS in organizations

The Adoption of Information Technology by Spanish CIOs: Facts and Fallacies

In this paper, we contend that due to the particularities and widespread use of new ICT, traditional ways of explaining IT adoption in companies-rational decision making, technology diffusion models, and the psychology of the decision maker-are insufficient to explain some observed cases of ICT diffusion. We prove that there is a new role played by the user community in the technology adoption process, brought about by factors like the existence of a strong development community in the case of OSS, or widespread access to Internet technology. A mixed two-phase method was used for this study. In the first phase, through a qualitative analysis of some significant cases we depicted under which conditions a significant adoption of a particular technology (OSS) might unfold, showing that in some circumstances user groups could play a significant role. In the second phase an exploratory quantitative analysis was carried out to verify the new dimensions of the technology adoption process. The results showed a high influence of social factors like peer group adoption and user’s pressure. Due to reasons of geographical proximity the research was carried out in Spanish companies, but we believe that, like with similar adoption studies, the results are of general nature as there are no culturally specific dimensions that we could identify. Conclusions and further research are outlined

CONCEPTUALIZING THE COMMONS-BASED PEERPRODUCTION OF SOFTWARE: AN ACTIVITY THEORETIC ANALYSIS

Commons-based peer-production (CBPP), as exemplified by community-based open source software (OSS) development, has been posited by Yochai Benkler as an alternative to hierarchies and markets for organizing the production of information goods. This study seeks to conceptualize viable CBPP through an Activity Theoretic analysis of 524 peer-reviewed OSS research artifacts. The analysis reveals the reliance of peer-production communities on complex systems of interrelated tools, rules, and roles as mediating components enabling communities to (i) exploit the two theorized advantages of CBPP (resource allocation and information processing) and (ii) overcome the two theorized challenges associated with this mode of production (motivation and organization). The study clarifies and extends extant understanding of CBPP in several significant ways, and concludes that in order for CBPP to be viable, participants must operate in a sustainable fashion that both enhances the commons and leaves the community intact

User communities: from nice-to-have to must-have

With Industry 5.0 already on the horizon, firms need to adapt their strategies to better cater to an increasingly demanding and sustainability-conscious customer base. At the same time, the role of customers has shifted from being mere passive buyers to active users, who not only demand personalized products and services to suit their needs and preferences, but also actively engage other users and stakeholders, thereby grounding the Quadruple Helix model. The objective of this paper is to assess the role of user communities in fostering firms’ innovation in all types of innovation. Econometric estimations identified the user community as a driver of innovation propensity. Additionally, the relevance of these communities across all types of innovation (mainly for product and process innovation) was proven. Robustness analysis confirmed the results obtained in different dimensions and established a connection to human capital. This finding revealed that absorptive capacity serves not only as a facilitator of innovation, but also as a moderator. The empirical contributions point towards the urgency of policy actions that consistently involve these agents as vehicles of responsible innovation, which can fine-tune the innovation paths towards an eco-friendlier innovation ecosystem. Further testing the connection between human capital and the user community is required, as the establishment of efficient communication channels promoting the knowledge flows inside the firm will leverage innovation outputs in the different innovation types.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Developing and Assessing the Drivers of Usage of Computer-Assisted-Audit-Techniques (CAATs) and the factors that impact Audit Quality perceptions in Government Internal Audit

This research aims to develop two models, the first of which is capable of predicting the internal auditor’s intention to adopt audit technologies, and second of which is to predict the factors that impact on the internal auditor’s perception of internal audit quality in the context of public sector auditing in Oman. The models proposed by this research are developed from existing research on technology adoption in general, as well as research on technology adoption specific to the internal audit context (Curtis & Payne, 2014; Dowling & Leech, 2014; Mahzan & Lymer, 2014). Given that Oman is only in the initial stages of utilising technology for auditing through the International Organisation for Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI) working group for IT audit (Pysmenna, 2017), the internal audit context of government institutions in the Sultanate of Oman was considered appropriate for testing the models developed in this study