IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/scotjp/v70y2023i2p133-143.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Does possessing an installed base induce a proprietary software producer to act aggressively or mildly in pricing and intrinsic quality provision?

Author

Listed:
  • Chung‐Hui Chou

Abstract

This paper investigates competition between open‐source software (OSS) and proprietary software (PS) which possesses an installed base. We find that an increase in PS installed base does not necessarily induce the PS producer to increase price or reduce intrinsic quality. Specifically, if OSS is weakly (moderately) compatible with PS, then an increase in PS installed base induces the PS producer to invest less (more) in intrinsic quality. Regarding the price of PS, if OSS is highly compatible with PS possessing a large installed base, then an increase in installed base induces the PS producer to sell products for a lower price.

Suggested Citation

  • Chung‐Hui Chou, 2023. "Does possessing an installed base induce a proprietary software producer to act aggressively or mildly in pricing and intrinsic quality provision?," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 70(2), pages 133-143, May.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:scotjp:v:70:y:2023:i:2:p:133-143
    DOI: 10.1111/sjpe.12335
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/sjpe.12335
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/sjpe.12335?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Farrell, Joseph & Saloner, Garth, 1986. "Installed Base and Compatibility: Innovation, Product Preannouncements, and Predation," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(5), pages 940-955, December.
    2. Nicholas Economides & Evangelos Katsamakas, 2006. "Two-Sided Competition of Proprietary vs. Open Source Technology Platforms and the Implications for the Software Industry," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 52(7), pages 1057-1071, July.
    3. P. Dogan, "undated". "Vertical Networks, Integration, and Connectivity," Working Paper 33644, Harvard University OpenScholar.
    4. Jiawei Chen & Ulrich Doraszelski & Joseph E. Harrington, Jr., 2009. "Avoiding market dominance: product compatibility in markets with network effects," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 40(3), pages 455-485, September.
    5. Josh Lerner & Jean Tirole, 2002. "Some Simple Economics of Open Source," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(2), pages 197-234, June.
    6. Eric Darmon & Dominique Torre, 2017. "Dual licensing strategy with open source competition," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 38(8), pages 1082-1093, December.
    7. Josh Lerner & Jean Tirole, 2005. "The Economics of Technology Sharing: Open Source and Beyond," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 19(2), pages 99-120, Spring.
    8. Church, Jeffrey & Gandal, Neil, 1996. "Strategic entry deterrence: Complementary products as installed base," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 12(2), pages 331-354, September.
    9. Matthew T. Clements & Hiroshi Ohashi, 2005. "Indirect Network Effects And The Product Cycle: Video Games In The U.S., 1994–2002," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(4), pages 515-542, December.
    10. Justin Pappas Johnson, 2002. "Open Source Software: Private Provision of a Public Good," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 11(4), pages 637-662, December.
    11. Llanes, Gastón & de Elejalde, Ramiro, 2013. "Industry equilibrium with open-source and proprietary firms," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 36-49.
    12. Ramon Casadesus-Masanell & Pankaj Ghemawat, 2006. "Dynamic Mixed Duopoly: A Model Motivated by Linux vs. Windows," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 52(7), pages 1072-1084, July.
    13. Vidya Atal & Kameshwari Shankar, 2014. "Open Source Software: Competition with A Public Good," Atlantic Economic Journal, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 42(3), pages 333-345, September.
    14. Shane M. Greenstein, 1993. "Did Installed Base Given an Incumbent Any (Measurable) Advantages in Federal Computer Procurement?," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 24(1), pages 19-39, Spring.
    15. Eric Darmon & Dominique Torre, 2017. "Dual licensing strategy with open source competition," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 38(8), pages 1082-1093, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chung‐Hui Chou, 2021. "Could coexistence of open‐source and proprietary platforms be an equilibrium outcome?," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 89(3), pages 297-309, June.
    2. Engelhardt, Sebastian v. & Freytag, Andreas, 2013. "Institutions, culture, and open source," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 90-110.
    3. Murat Yılmaz, 2022. "Coexistence of proprietary and open‐source firms under product differentiation," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 43(8), pages 4153-4166, December.
    4. Llanes, Gastón & de Elejalde, Ramiro, 2013. "Industry equilibrium with open-source and proprietary firms," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 36-49.
    5. Sebastian von Engelhardt, 2010. "Quality Competition or Quality Cooperation? License-Type and the Strategic Nature of Open Source vs. Closed Source Business Models," Jena Economics Research Papers 2010-034, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena.
    6. Fershtman, Chaim & Gandal, Neil, 2011. "A Brief Survey of the Economics of Open Source Software," CEPR Discussion Papers 8434, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    7. Jeongmeen Suh & Murat Yılmaz, 2019. "Economics of Open Source Technology: A Dynamic Approach," Dynamic Games and Applications, Springer, vol. 9(1), pages 254-280, March.
    8. Eric Darmon & Dominique Torre, 2010. "Open source, dual licensing and software compétition," Post-Print halshs-00497623, HAL.
    9. Bitzer, Jürgen & Geishecker, Ingo, 2010. "Who contributes voluntarily to OSS? An investigation among German IT employees," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 165-172, February.
    10. Luigi Di Gaetano, 2015. "A Model of corporate donations to open source under hardware–software complementarity," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 24(1), pages 163-190.
    11. Burcu Tan & Edward G. Anderson, Jr. & Geoffrey G. Parker, 2020. "Platform Pricing and Investment to Drive Third-Party Value Creation in Two-Sided Networks," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 31(1), pages 217-239, March.
    12. Nicholas Economides & Evangelos Katsamakas, 2005. "Linux vs. Windows: A comparison of application and platform innovation incentives for open source and proprietary software platforms+," Working Papers 05-03, NET Institute, revised Sep 2005.
    13. Cerquera Dussán, Daniel & Müller, Bettina, 2009. "Open Source, ICT infrastructure and firm performance," ZEW Discussion Papers 09-089, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    14. Dongryul Lee & Byung Kim, 2013. "Motivations for Open Source Project Participation and Decisions of Software Developers," Computational Economics, Springer;Society for Computational Economics, vol. 41(1), pages 31-57, January.
    15. Ramon Casadesus-Masanell & Gastón Llanes, 2011. "Mixed Source," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 57(7), pages 1212-1230, July.
    16. Nicholas Economides & Evangelos Katsamakas, 2005. "Linux vs. Windows: A Comparison of Innovation Incentives and a Case Study," Working Papers 05-11, New York University, Leonard N. Stern School of Business, Department of Economics.
    17. Reisinger, Markus & Ressner, Ludwig & Schmidtke, Richard & Thomes, Tim Paul, 2014. "Crowding-in of complementary contributions to public goods: Firm investment into open source software," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 78-94.
    18. Nicholas Economides & Evangelos Katsamakas, 2006. "Two-Sided Competition of Proprietary vs. Open Source Technology Platforms and the Implications for the Software Industry," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 52(7), pages 1057-1071, July.
    19. Susan Athey & Glenn Ellison, 2014. "Dynamics of Open Source Movements," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(2), pages 294-316, June.
    20. Ron Adner & Jianqing Chen & Feng Zhu, 2020. "Frenemies in Platform Markets: Heterogeneous Profit Foci as Drivers of Compatibility Decisions," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 66(6), pages 2432-2451, June.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:scotjp:v:70:y:2023:i:2:p:133-143. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/sesssea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.