Private-Collective Software Business Models: Coordination and Commercialization Via Licensing

15 Pages Posted: 29 Jun 2007

See all articles by Heli A. Koski

Heli A. Koski

ETLA, Research Institute of the Finnish Economy

Abstract

Private-collective business models that involve both private investment incentives and the production of public goods are not well understood. This empirically oriented research uses a unique data from the software industries of five European countries (Finland, Germany, Italy, Portugal and Spain) to illuminate the patterns of private, entrepreneurial provision of software placed in the public domain. The estimation results strongly suggest that the highly restrictive GPL works as an efficient coordination mechanism for the (leading) developers of the OSS community and spreads particularly via the firms that have participated in the OSS development projects. The software companies supplying the OSS, instead, tend not to aim at using the GPL to coordinate the further development of their own OSS. Rather the firms are the origin of more flexibly licensed OSS products though generally the software firms' OSS business strategies relate to the restrictive licensing strategy choices.

Keywords: Software, licensing

JEL Classification: K00

Suggested Citation

Koski, Heli A., Private-Collective Software Business Models: Coordination and Commercialization Via Licensing. Review of Economic Research on Copyright Issues, Vol. 4, No. 1, pp. 47-61, 2007, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=997192

Heli A. Koski (Contact Author)

ETLA, Research Institute of the Finnish Economy ( email )

Lonnrotink. 4 B
FIN-00120 Helsinki, 00120
Finland
358 9 60990 250 (Phone)
358 9 601 753 (Fax)

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