Despite the availability of source code, deploying open source software (OSS) in an enterprise environment requires expertise. Recent surveys and case studies show that the skills of IT staff in an organization are one of the key factors in OSS adoption decisions. Another important factor...

Upgrades are endemic in the software industry and create the possibility that customers might either postpone purchase or buy early on and never upgrade: When will a customer upgrade? Is it better to upgrade now or to wait for an improved version? When should we release an improved product? How...

We analyze the relation between patents and the different business models available to firms in the software industry. The paper builds on Cusumano's work defining the differences among firms that sell products, those that provide services, and the hybrid firms that fall between those polar...

We investigate the value creation or destruction associated with the introduction of software patents in the United States in two ways. The first looks at the cumulative abnormal returns to Information and Communication Technology (ICT) firms around the time of important court decisions that...

The recent demise of the proposed Directive on Computer-Implemented Inventions has overshadowed its complex background and the interplay of conflicting interests that it brought into play. Copyright (which already protects all software) and patent law (which protects much software in the United...

Sponsored search advertising is ascendant -- Jupiter Research reports expenditures rose 28% in 2007 to $8.9B and will continue to rise at a 26% CAGR, approaching 1/2 the level of television advertising and making it one of the major advertising trends to affect the marketing landscape. Yet...

The computer-services and software industry used to be conveniently divided into three main sectors: mass-market software vendors, enterprise software vendors, and computer services. The three sectors were distinct, because personal computers, corporate mainframes, and online computer networks...

The incentive to copy software depends on publishers' price and monitoring strategy. This paper analyzes how a publisher's strategy depends on the penalty for copyright violation and the cost of copying. It shows that changes in price and monitoring have qualitatively different effects on...

To distribute software, commercial vendors of proprietary software have the opportunity to use some dual licensing (DL) strategy i.e. to provide their software under two different licensing terms (proprietary and open source). We investigate the relevance and impacts of this distribution...

We develop an optimal control model to maximize the net value provided by a software system over its useful life. The model determines the initial number of features in the system, the level of dynamic enhancement effort, and the lifetime of the system. The various factors affecting these...