An evaluation of open source software adoption by UK SMEs in the IT industry

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.This study evaluates the adoption of Open Source Software (OSS) by IT Small to Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) in the UK. The growing popularity and acceptance of OSS continues to draw much attention in research and practice. However, researchers and IT practitioners within the UK SME sector still face challenges in understanding the issues that influence the acceptance, adoption, and diffusion of OSS. While previous research studies have focused mainly on the software development model and the unique characteristics of OSS, the area of OSS adoption by UK SMEs has largely been ignored. Furthermore, there is a lack of widely-acceptable theories that explain the adoption of OSS, implying that there is limited understanding of OSS adoption by UK SMEs. This gap in research has led this thesis to evaluate existing adoption theories and then apply the 'Decomposed Theory of Planned Behaviour' to model the adoption of OSS by SMEs. Based on the emerged conceptual model, an innovative and structured qualitative research design that uses a case study strategy was developed to evaluate the adoption of OSS across 10 UK SMEs in the IT industry. The analysis of the standardised data from the case study interviews led to the definition of the 16 factors of an emergent theory of OSS adoption by IT SMEs. The analysis of that empirical model has led to important conclusions including the following five issues, summarily. (1) The participant IT SMEs were drawn to different benefits, and experienced different challenges, in using OSS, suggesting that there is subjectivity and complexity in the factors influencing OSS adoption. (2) As in most Information and Communication Technology (ICT) adoption, ITcapability was identified to be essential for successful adoption of OSS, and therefore, it presents potential for important cooperative and collaborative support with OSS communities. (3) The emergent theory from this research study provide researchers and practitioners with variables for surveying critical-success-factors and a reference model for understanding the adoption of OSS. (4) The emergent theory and other general findings from this study are likely to have relevance in other areas of Information Systems research and practice, owing to the factors and theoretical framework that are common to OSS and general ICT acceptance, adoption, and diffusion. (5) This study appears to be the first that has focused on developing a widely-acceptable theory of OSS adoption by IT SMEs in the UK, suggesting that this innovative research study is a novel contribution that has important implications for theory and practice in OSS and general ICT acceptance, adoption, and diffusion

An evaluation of open source software adoption by UK SMEs in the IT industry

This study evaluates the adoption of Open Source Software (OSS) by IT Small to Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) in the UK. The growing popularity and acceptance of OSS continues to draw much attention in research and practice. However, researchers and IT practitioners within the UK SME sector still face challenges in understanding the issues that influence the acceptance, adoption, and diffusion of OSS. While previous research studies have focused mainly on the software development model and the unique characteristics of OSS, the area of OSS adoption by UK SMEs has largely been ignored. Furthermore, there is a lack of widely-acceptable theories that explain the adoption of OSS, implying that there is limited understanding of OSS adoption by UK SMEs. This gap in research has led this thesis to evaluate existing adoption theories and then apply the 'Decomposed Theory of Planned Behaviour' to model the adoption of OSS by SMEs. Based on the emerged conceptual model, an innovative and structured qualitative research design that uses a case study strategy was developed to evaluate the adoption of OSS across 10 UK SMEs in the IT industry. The analysis of the standardised data from the case study interviews led to the definition of the 16 factors of an emergent theory of OSS adoption by IT SMEs. The analysis of that empirical model has led to important conclusions including the following five issues, summarily. (1) The participant IT SMEs were drawn to different benefits, and experienced different challenges, in using OSS, suggesting that there is subjectivity and complexity in the factors influencing OSS adoption. (2) As in most Information and Communication Technology (ICT) adoption, ITcapability was identified to be essential for successful adoption of OSS, and therefore, it presents potential for important cooperative and collaborative support with OSS communities. (3) The emergent theory from this research study provide researchers and practitioners with variables for surveying critical-success-factors and a reference model for understanding the adoption of OSS. (4) The emergent theory and other general findings from this study are likely to have relevance in other areas of Information Systems research and practice, owing to the factors and theoretical framework that are common to OSS and general ICT acceptance, adoption, and diffusion. (5) This study appears to be the first that has focused on developing a widely-acceptable theory of OSS adoption by IT SMEs in the UK, suggesting that this innovative research study is a novel contribution that has important implications for theory and practice in OSS and general ICT acceptance, adoption, and diffusion.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

A theory-grounded framework of Open Source Software adoption in SMEs

This is a post-peer-review, pre-copyedit version of an article published in European Journal of Information Systems. The definitive publisher-authenticated version Macredie, RD and Mijinyawa, K (2011), "A theory-grounded framework of Open Source Software adoption in SMEs", European Journal of Informations Systems, 20(2), 237-250 is available online at: http://www.palgrave-journals.com/ejis/journal/v20/n2/abs/ejis201060a.html.The increasing popularity and use of Open Source Software (OSS) has led to significant interest from research communities and enterprise practitioners, notably in the small business sector where this type of software offers particular benefits given the financial and human capital constraints faced. However, there has been little focus on developing valid frameworks that enable critical evaluation and common understanding of factors influencing OSS adoption. This paper seeks to address this shortcoming by presenting a theory-grounded framework for exploring these factors and explaining their influence on OSS adoption, with the context of study being small- to medium-sized Information Technology (IT) businesses in the U.K. The framework has implications for this type of business – and, we will suggest, more widely – as a frame of reference for understanding, and as tool for evaluating benefits and challenges in, OSS adoption. It also offers researchers a structured way of investigating adoption issues and a base from which to develop models of OSS adoption. The study reported in this paper used the Decomposed Theory of Planned Behaviour (DTPB) as a basis for the research propositions, with the aim of: (i) developing a framework of empirical factors that influence OSS adoption; and (ii) appraising it through case study evaluation with 10 U.K. Small- to medium-sized enterprises in the IT sector. The demonstration of the capabilities of the framework suggests that it is able to provide a reliable explanation of the complex and subjective factors that influence attitudes, subjective norms and control over the use of OSS. The paper further argues that the DTPB proved useful in this research area and that it can provide a variety of situation-specific insights related to factors that influence the adoption of OSS