Open source reuse and strategic imperatives

Abstract

Free and Open Source software (FOSS) allows firms to gain strategic advantage by enabling business agility that is essential to compete in a hypercompetitive environment. Literature on the strategic role of IT indicates that contemporary firms need to constantly upgrade their IT capabilities and maintain flexible IT systems to remain competitive. We argue that FOSS lends itself well to an iterative process of capability development: providing firms with a strategic advantage through reuse of FOSS. We conduct a qualitative case study-based research of commercial firms to assess the strategic imperatives of reusing FOSS. Results indicate that the primary motivation for reusing FOSS is the ability to innovate through access to open source components along with their embedded knowledge, supported by independence from vendor lock-in. Specific advantages enjoyed by firms through the use of FOSS include flexibility, interoperability, stability, security and time-to-market.