OPEN-SOURCE vs. PROPRIETARY SOFTWARE*
Jean‐Michel Dalle · 2002
The article studies technological competition between open-source and proprietary software using a model from interaction theory. We argue that the organizational structure of open-source software, allowed by openness of source codes and by the subsequent development of dedicated communities, is a key feature which, together with compatibility, can allow open-source software to overcome existing proprietary standards. This result depends on the distribution of adopters preferences, but holds when proprietary software producers try to react, even quickly. On the contrary, asymmetric hybridization strategies might successfully allow software producers to protect existing standards.