Value creation and value capture fro open source software publisher : a new business model based on mutualisation

Key topics: Since the birth of the Open Source movement in the mid-80's, open source software has become more and more widespread. Amongst others, the Linux operating system, the Apache web server and the Firefox internet explorer have taken substantial market shares to their proprietary competitors. Open source software is governed by particular types of licenses. As proprietary licenses only allow the software's use in exchange for a fee, open source licenses grant users more rights like the free use, free copy, free modification and free distribution of the software, as well as free access to the source code. This new phenomenon has raised many managerial questions: organizational issues related to the system of governance that underlie such open source communities (Raymond, 1999a; Lerner and Tirole, 2002; Lee and Cole 2003; Mockus et al. 2000; Tuomi, 2000; Demil and Lecocq, 2006; O'Mahony and Ferraro, 2007;Fleming and Waguespack, 2007), collaborative innovation issues (Von Hippel, 2003; Von Krogh et al., 2003; Von Hippel and Von Krogh, 2003; Dahlander, 2005; Osterloh, 2007; David, 2008), issues related to the nature as well as the motivations of developers (Lerner and Tirole, 2002; Hertel, 2003; Dahlander and McKelvey, 2005; Jeppesen and Frederiksen, 2006), public policy and innovation issues (Jullien and Zimmermann, 2005; Lee, 2006), technological competitions issues related to standard battles between proprietary and open source software (Bonaccorsi and Rossi, 2003; Bonaccorsi et al. 2004, Economides and Katsamakas, 2005; Chen, 2007), intellectual property rights and licensing issues (Laat 2005; Lerner and Tirole, 2005; Gambardella, 2006; Determann et al., 2007). A major unresolved issue concerns open source business models and revenue capture, given that open source licenses imply no fee for users. On this topic, articles show that a commercial activity based on open source software is possible, as they describe different possible ways of doing business around open source (Raymond, 1999; Dahlander, 2004; Daffara, 2007; Bonaccorsi and Merito, 2007). These studies usually look at open source-based companies. Open source-based companies encompass a wide range of firms with different categories of activities: providers of packaged open source solutions, IT Services&Software Engineering firms and open source software publishers. However, business models implications are different for each of these categories: providers of packaged solutions and IT Services&Software Engineering firms' activities are based on software developed outside their boundaries, whereas commercial software publishers sponsor the development of the open source software. This paper focuses on open source software publishers' business models as this issue is even more crucial for this category of firms which take the risk of investing in the development of the software. Literature at last identifies and depicts only two generic types of business models for open source software publishers: the business models of ''bundling'' (Pal and Madanmohan, 2002; Dahlander 2004) and the dual licensing business models (Välimäki, 2003; Comino and Manenti, 2007). Nevertheless, these business models are not applicable in all circumstances. Methodology: The objectives of this paper are: (1) to explore in which contexts the two generic business models described in literature can be implemented successfully and (2) to depict an additional business model for open source software publishers which can be used in a different context. To do so, this paper draws upon an explorative case study of IdealX, a French open source security software publisher. This case study consists in a series of 3 interviews conducted between February 2005 and April 2006 with the co-founder and the business manager. It aims at depicting the process of IdealX's search for the appropriate business model between its creation in 2000 and 2006. This software publisher has tried both generic types of open source software publishers' business models before designing its own. Consequently, through IdealX's trials and errors, I investigate the conditions under which such generic business models can be effective. Moreover, this study describes the business model finally designed and adopted by IdealX: an additional open source software publisher's business model based on the principle of ''mutualisation'', which is applicable in a different context. Results and implications: Finally, this article contributes to ongoing empirical work within entrepreneurship and strategic management on open source software publishers' business models: it provides the characteristics of three generic business models (the business model of bundling, the dual licensing business model and the business model of mutualisation) as well as conditions under which they can be successfully implemented (regarding the type of product developed and the competencies of the firm). This paper also goes further into the traditional concept of business model used by scholars in the open source related literature. In this article, a business model is not only considered as a way of generating incomes (''revenue model'' (Amit and Zott, 2001)), but rather as the necessary conjunction of value creation and value capture, according to the recent literature about business models (Amit and Zott, 2001; Chresbrough and Rosenblum, 2002; Teece, 2007). Consequently, this paper analyses the business models from these two components' point of view.

A penalty-based genetic algorithm for the composite SaaS placement problem in the cloud

Cloud computing is a latest new computing paradigm where applications, data and IT services are provided over the Internet. Cloud computing has become a main medium for Software as a Service (SaaS) providers to host their SaaS as it can provide the scalability a SaaS requires. The challenges in the composite SaaS placement process rely on several factors including the large size of the Cloud network, SaaS competing resource requirements, SaaS interactions between its components and SaaS interactions with its data components. However, existing applications’ placement methods in data centres are not concerned with the placement of the component’s data. In addition, a Cloud network is much larger than data center networks that have been discussed in existing studies. This paper proposes a penalty-based genetic algorithm (GA) to the composite SaaS placement problem in the Cloud. We believe this is the first attempt to the SaaS placement with its data in Cloud provider’s servers. Experimental results demonstrate the feasibility and the scalability of the GA.

Putting the Repository First: Implementing a Repository to RIS Workflow for QUT ePrints

As one of the first institutional repositories in Australia and the first in the world to have an institution-wide deposit mandate, QUT ePrints has great ‘brand recognition’ within the University (Queensland University of Technology) and beyond. The repository is managed by the library but, over the years, the Library’s repository team has worked closely with other departments (especially the Office of Research and IT Services) to ensure that QUT ePrints was embedded into the business processes and systems our academics use regularly. For example, the repository is the source of the publication information which displays on each academic’s Staff Profile page. The repository pulls in citation data from Scopus and Web of Science and displays the data in the publications records. Researchers can monitor their citations at a glance via the repository ‘View’ which displays all their publications. A trend in recent years has been to populate institutional repositories with publication details imported from the University’s research information system (RIS). The main advantage of the RIS to Repository workflow is that it requires little input from the academics as the publication details are often imported into the RIS from publisher databases. Sadly, this is also its main disadvantage. Generally, only the metadata is imported from the RIS and the lack of engagement by the academics results in very low proportions of records with open access full-texts. Consequently, while we could see the value of integrating the two systems, we were determined to make the repository the entry point for publication data. In 2011, the University funded a project to convert a number of paper-based processes into web-based workflows. This included a workflow to replace the paper forms academics used to complete to report new publications (which were later used by the data entry staff to input the details into the RIS). Publication details and full-text files are uploaded to the repository (by the academics or their nominees). Each night, the repository (QUT ePrints) pushes the metadata for new publications into a holding table. The data is checked by Office of Research staff the next day and then ‘imported’ into the RIS. Publication details (including the repository URLs) are pushed from the RIS to the Staff Profiles system. Previously, academics were required to supply the Office of research with photocopies of their publication (for verification/auditing purposes). The repository is now the source of verification information. Library staff verify the accuracy of the publication details and, where applicable, the peer review status of the work. The verification metadata is included in the information passed to the Office of Research. The RIS at QUT comprises two separate systems built on an Oracle database; a proprietary product (ResearchMaster) plus a locally produced system known as RAD (Research Activity Database). The repository platform is EPrints which is built on a MySQL database. This partly explains why the data is passed from one system to the other via a holding table. The new workflow went live in early April 2012. Tests of the technical integration have all been successful. At the end of the first 12 months, the impact of the new workflow on the proportion of full-texts deposited will be evaluated.

The QUT innovation space : a trans-disciplinary learning environment for entrepreneurship education : final report

In the current climate of global economic volatility, there are increasing calls for training in enterprising skills and entrepreneurship to underpin the systemic innovation required for even medium-term business sustainability. The skills long-recognised as the essential for entrepreneurship now appear on the list of employability skills demanded by industry. The QUT Innovation Space (QIS) was an experiment aimed at delivering entrepreneurship education (EE), as an extra-curricular platform across the university, to the undergraduate students of an Australian higher education institute. It was an ambitious project that built on overseas models of EE studied during an Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC) Teaching Fellowship (Collet, 2011) and implemented those approaches across an institute. Such EE approaches have not been attempted in an Australian university. The project tested resonance not only with the student population, from the perspective of what worked and what didn’t work, but also with every level of university operations. Such information is needed to inform the development of EE in the Australian university landscape. The QIS comprised a physical co-working space, virtual sites (web, Twitter and Facebook) and a network of entrepreneurial mentors, colleagues, and students. All facets of the QIS enabled connection between like-minded individuals that underpins the momentum needed for a project of this nature. The QIS became an innovation community within QUT. This report serves two purposes. First, as an account of the QIS project and its evolution, the report serves to identify the student demand for skills and training as well as barriers and facilitators of the activities that promote EE in an Australian university context. Second, the report serves as a how-to manual, in the tradition of many tomes on EE, outlining the QIS activities that worked as well as those that failed. The activities represent one measure of QIS outcomes and are described herein to facilitate implementation in other institutes. The QIS initially aimed to adopt an incubation model for training in EE. The ‘learning by doing’ model for new venture creation is a highly successful and high profile training approach commonly found in overseas contexts. However, the greatest demand of the QUT student population was not for incubation and progression of a developed entrepreneurial intent, but rather for training that instilled enterprising skills in the individual. These two scenarios require different training approaches (Fayolle and Gailly, 2008). The activities of the QIS evolved to meet that student demand. In addressing enterprising skills, the QIS developed the antecedents of entrepreneurialism (i.e., entrepreneurial attitudes, motivation and behaviours) including high-level skills around risk-taking, effective communication, opportunity recognition and action-orientation. In focusing on the would-be entrepreneur and not on the (initial) idea per se, the QIS also fostered entrepreneurial outcomes that would never have gained entry to the rigid stage-gated incubation model proposed for the original QIS framework. Important lessons learned from the project for development of an innovation community include the need to: 1. Evaluate the context of the type of EE program to be delivered and the student demand for the skills training (as noted above). 2. Create a community that builds on three dimensions: a physical space, a virtual environment and a network of mentors and partners. 3. Supplement the community with external partnerships that aid in delivery of skills training materials. 4. Ensure discovery of the community through the use of external IT services to deliver advertising and networking outlets. 5. Manage unrealistic student expectations of billion dollar products. 6. Continuously renew and rebuild simple activities to maintain student engagement. 7. Accommodate the non-university end-user group within the community. 8. Recognise and address the skills bottlenecks that serve as barriers to concept progression; in this case, externally provided IT and programming skills. 9. Use available on-line and published resources rather than engage in constructing project-specific resources that quickly become obsolete. 10. Avoid perceptions of faculty ownership and operate in an increasingly competitive environment. 11. Recognise that the continuum between creativity/innovation and entrepreneurship is complex, non-linear and requires different training regimes during the different phases of the pipeline. One small entity, such as the QIS, cannot address them all. The QIS successfully designed, implemented and delivered activities that included events, workshops, seminars and services to QUT students in the extra-curricular space. That the QIS project can be considered successful derives directly from the outcomes. First, the QIS project changed the lives of emerging QUT student entrepreneurs. Also, the QIS activities developed enterprising skills in students who did not necessarily have a business proposition, at the time. Second, successful outcomes of the QIS project are evidenced as the embedding of most, perhaps all, of the QIS activities in a new Chancellery-sponsored initiative: the Leadership Development and Innovation Program hosted by QUT Student Support Services. During the course of the QIS project, the Brisbane-based innovation ecosystem underwent substantial change. From a dearth of opportunities for the entrepreneurially inclined, there is now a plethora of entities that cater for a diversity of innovation-related activities. While the QIS evolved with the landscape, the demand endpoint of the QIS activities still highlights a gap in the local and national innovation ecosystems. The freedom to experiment and to fail is not catered for by the many new entities seeking to build viable businesses on the back of the innovation push. The onus of teaching the enterprising skills, which are the employability skills now demanded by industry, remains the domain of the higher education sector.

Design and implementation of unified communications as a service based on the OpenStack cloud environment

Cloud Computing, based on early virtual computer concepts and technologies, is now itself a maturing technology in the marketplace and it has revolutionized the IT industry, being the powerful platform that many businesses are choosing to migrate their in-premises IT services onto. Cloud solution has the potential to reduce the capital and operational expenses associated with deploying IT services on their own. In this study, we have implemented our own private cloud solution, infrastructure as a service (IaaS), using the OpenStack platform with high availability and a dynamic resource allocation mechanism. Besides, we have hosted unified communication as a service (UCaaS) in the underlying IaaS and successfully tested voice over IP (VoIP), video conferencing, voice mail and instant messaging (IM) with clients located at the remote site. The proposed solution has been developed in order to give advice to bussinesses that want to build their own cloud environment, IaaS and host cloud services and applicatons in the cloud. This paper also aims at providing an alternate option for proprietary cloud solutions for service providers to consider.

Performance analysis of secure unified communications in the VMware-based cloud

Unified communications as a service (UCaaS) can be regarded as a cost-effective model for on-demand delivery of unified communications services in the cloud. However, addressing security concerns has been seen as the biggest challenge to the adoption of IT services in the cloud. This study set up a cloud system via VMware suite to emulate hosting unified communications (UC), the integration of two or more real time communication systems, services in the cloud in a laboratory environment. An Internet Protocol Security (IPSec) gateway was also set up to support network-level security for UCaaS against possible security exposures. This study was aimed at analysis of an implementation of UCaaS over IPSec and evaluation of the latency of encrypted UC traffic while protecting that traffic. Our test results show no latency while IPSec is implemented with a G.711 audio codec. However, the performance of the G.722 audio codec with an IPSec implementation affects the overall performance of the UC server. These results give technical advice and guidance to those involved in security controls in UC security on premises as well as in the cloud.

The internet, globalization, and IT professional services

This editorial aims (1) to define IT Professional Services (ITPS) as an increasingly important area of research endeavor, and (2) to consider the impact of the Internet on globalization and the ITPS sector.

On reconsideration of IT governance structures to govern cloud computing services

There is an increase in the uptake of cloud computing services (CCS). CCS is adopted in the form of a utility, and it incorporates business risks of the service providers and intermediaries. Thus, the adoption of CCS will change the risk profile of an organization. In this situation, organisations need to develop competencies by reconsidering their IT governance structures to achieve a desired level of IT-business alignment and maintain their risk appetite to source business value from CCS. We use the resource-based theories to suggest that collaborative board oversight of CCS, competencies relating to CCS information and financial management, and a CCS-related continuous audit program can contribute to business process performance improvements and overall firm performance. Using survey data, we find evidence of a positive association between these IT governance considerations and business process performance. We also find evidence of positive association between business process performance improvements and overall firm performance. The results suggest that the suggested considerations on IT governance structures can contribute to CCS-related IT-business alignment and lead to anticipated business value from CCS. This study provides guidance to organizations on competencies required to secure business value from CCS.

Governing cloud computing services: Reconsideration of IT governance structures

There is an increase in the uptake of cloud computing services (CCS). CCS is adopted in the form of a utility, and it incorporates business risks of the service providers and intermediaries. Thus, the adoption of CCS will change the risk profile of an organization. In this situation, organizations need to develop competencies by reconsidering their IT governance structures to achieve a desired level of IT-business alignment and maintain their risk appetite to source business value from CCS. We use the resource-based theories to suggest that collaborative board oversight of CCS, competencies relating to CCS information and financial management, and a CCS-related continuous audit program can contribute to business process performance improvements and overall firm performance. Using survey data, we find evidence of a positive association between these IT governance considerations and business process performance. We also find evidence of positive association between business process performance improvements and overall firm performance. The results suggest that the suggested considerations on IT governance structures can contribute to CCS-related IT-business alignment and lead to anticipated business value from CCS. This study provides guidance to organizations on competencies required to secure business value from CCS.

How do customers of a financial services institution judge its communications

Communications are important for relationships within a marketing channel from both a theoretical and managerial perspective. Yet it is a problematic area for scholars. Thus, this research addresses the problem of how do customers of a financial services institution perceive communications with an ideal institution? This study's case research methodology used in-depth interviews with 34 carefully selected customers of a building society. The factors that make up customers' attitudes about corporate communications for an ideal financial services institution were identified and actual perceptions were compared against that ideal. The findings confirmed the importance of communications for customers in a relationship with a financial services provider and suggested communication priorities for customers in this context. In addition, the findings suggested sources of communication dissatisfaction for customers. These findings build upon the literature that speculates about customer perceptions of communications with organizations but provides little evidence to support hypotheses. The contributions arose from the emphasis on the customers' own attitudes and the patterns found within them.

Enhancing the trust of location acquisition systems for critical applications and location-based security services

This paper identifies a number of critical infrastructure applications that are reliant on location services from cooperative location technologies such as GPS and GSM. We show that these location technologies can be represented in a general location model, such that the model components can be used for vulnerability analysis. We perform a vulnerability analysis on these components of GSM and GPS location systems as well as a number of augmentations to these systems.

Exchange relationships in building services maintenance activity : a test of transaction cost economics and the resource dependency view

The firm is faced with a decision concerning the nature of intra-organizational exchange relationships with internal human resources and the nature or inter-organizational exchange relationships with market firms. In both situations, the firm can develop an exchange that ranges from a discrete exchange to a relational exchange. Transaction Cost Economics (TCE) and the Resource Dependency View (RDV) represent alternative efficiency-based explanations fo the nature of the exchange relationship. The aim of the paper is to test these two theories in respect of air conditioning maintenance in retail centres. Multiple sources of information are genereated from case studies of Australian retail centres to test these theories in respoect of internalized operations management (concerning strategic aspects of air conditioning maintenance) and externalized planned routine air conditioning maintenance. The analysis of the data centres on pattern matching. It is concluded that the data supports TCE - on the basis of a development in TCE's contractual schema. Further research is suggested towards taking a pluralistic stance and developing a combined efficiency and power hypothesis - upon which Williamson has speculated. For practice, the conclusions also offer a timely cautionary note concerning the adoption of one approach in all exchange relationships.

Assessing the potential of inter-organisational shared services

Shared Services (SS) involves the convergence and streamlining of an organisation’s functions to ensure timely service delivery as effectively and efficiently as possible. As a management structure designed to promote value generation, cost savings and improved service delivery by leveraging on economies of scale, the idea of SS is driven by cost reduction and improvements in quality levels of service and efficiency. Current conventional wisdom is that the potential for SS is increasing due to the increasing costs of changing systems and business requirements for organisations and in implementing and running information systems. In addition, due to commoditisation of large information systems such as enterprise systems, many common, supporting functions across organisations are becoming more similar than not, leading to an increasing overlap in processes and fuelling the notion that it is possible for organisations to derive benefits from collaborating and sharing their common services through an inter-organisational shared services (IOSS) arrangement. While there is some research on traditional SS, very little research has been done on IOSS. In particular, it is unclear what are the potential drivers and inhibitors of IOSS. As the concepts of IOSS and SS are closely related to that of Outsourcing, and their distinction is sometimes blurred, this research has the first objective of seeking a clear conceptual understanding of the differences between SS and Outsourcing (in motivators, arrangements, benefits, disadvantages, etc) and based on this conceptual understanding, the second objective of this research is to develop a decision model (Shared Services Potential model) which would aid organisations in deciding which arrangement would be more appropriate for them to adopt in pursuit of process improvements for their operations. As the context of the study is on universities in higher education sharing administrative services common to or across them and with the assumption that such services were homogenous in nature, this thesis also reports on a case study. The case study involved face to face interviews from representatives of an Australian university to explore the potential for IOSS. Our key findings suggest that it is possible for universities to share services common across them as most of them were currently using the same systems although independently.

Mobile communications : a study of factors influencing consumer use of m-services

New mobile digital communication technologies present opportunities for advertisers to capitalize on the evolving relationships of consumers with their mobile devices and their desire to access enhanced information services while mobile (m-services). Consumers already use mobile devices (cell phones, personal mobile digital assistants) for traditional phone calls and message handling (e.g., Kalakota and Robinson, 2002; Sullivan Mort and Drennan, 2002). The combination of rapidly developing mobile digital technology and high uptake rates of mobile devices presents enormous potential for delivery of m-services through these devices (Bitner, Brown, and Meuter, 2000). M-services encompass a wide variety of types including the ability to trade stock, to book theater and movie tickets while accessing seating plans online, to send and receive text and pictures, and receive personalized direct advertising such as alerts for shopping bargains. Marketing communications, and specifically advertising, may be delivered as an m-service and termed m-services advertising, forming part of the broader category of m-services. However, advertising research has not yet addressed the area of m-services and needs to do so to be able to take advantage of the advanced interactivity (Yadav and Varadarajan, 2005) of mobile communication devices. Such advertising research is likely to help develop open attitudes and responses to new business models as has been advocated for other new technology such as advanced television (Tauder, 2005). In this article, we model the factors influencing the use of m-services, in the context of consumers' existing relationships with mobile devices. First, we address the value propositions underpinning consumer involvement with mobile devices. Next, we canvass the types of involvement relevant to this consumption domain and argue that involvement, together with personal attributes innovativeness and self-efficacy, will influence use of m-services. Finally, implications for advertising delivered as an m-service are discussed, the potential for m-services advertising as part of m-commerce are canvassed, and directions for future research identified.

Social justice and high-quality human services : visioning the place of a contemporary professional association

The current world situation is plagued by “wicked problems” and a widespread sense of “things are going to get worse”. We confront the almost imponderable consequences of global habitat destruction and climate change, as well as the meltdown of the financial markets with their largely yet to be seen damage to the “real economy”. These things will have considerable negative impacts on the social system and people's lives, particularly the disadvantaged and socially excluded, and require innovative policy and program responses delivered by caring, intelligent, and committed practitioners. These gargantuan issues put into perspective the difficulties that confront social, welfare, and community work today. Yet, in times of trouble, social work and human services tend to do well. For example, although Australian Social Workers and Welfare and Community Workers have experienced phenomenal job growth over the past 5 years, they also have good prospects for future growth and above average salaries in the seventh and sixth deciles, respectively (Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, 2008). I aim to examine the host of reasons why the pursuit of social justice and high-quality human services is difficult to attain in today's world and then consider how the broadly defined profession of social welfare practitioners may collectively take action to (a) respond in ways that reassert our role in compassionately assisting the downtrodden and (b) reclaim the capacity to be a significant body of professional expertise driving social policy and programs. For too long social work has responded to the wider factors it confronts through a combination of ignoring them, critiquing from a distance, and concentrating on the job at hand and our day-to-day responsibilities. Unfortunately, “holding the line” has proved futile and, little by little, the broad social mandate and role of social welfare has altered until, currently, most social programs entail significant social surveillance of troublesome or dangerous groups, rather than assistance. At times it almost seems like the word “help” has been lost in the political and managerial lexicon, replaced by “manage” and “control”. Our values, beliefs, and ethics are under real threat as guiding principles for social programs.