How Open is Open Enough? Melding Proprietary and Open Source Platform Strategies

TitleHow Open is Open Enough? Melding Proprietary and Open Source Platform Strategies
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication2003
AuthorsWest, J
Secondary TitleRP Special Issue
Date PublishedFebruary
Abstract

Computer platforms provide an integrated architecture of hardware and software standards as a basis for developing complementary assets. The most successful platforms were owned by proprietary sponsors that controlled platform evolution and appropriated associated rewards. Responding to the Internet and open source systems, three traditional vendors of proprietary platforms experimented with hybrid strategies which attempted to combine the advantages of open source software while retaining control and differentiation. Such hybrid standards strategies reflect the competing imperatives for adoption and appropriability, and suggest the conditions under which such strategies may be preferable to either the purely open or purely proprietary alternatives.

Full Text
AttachmentSize
PDF icon rp-west.pdf124.42 KB