Title
Scope and Timing of Deployment: Moderators of Organizational Adoption of the Linux Server Platform
Author
Joel West, College of Business San José State University, and Jason Dedrick, Center for Research on Information Technologies and Organizations (CRITO)
Date
3/06/2008
(Original Publish Date: 1/30/2006)
(Original Publish Date: 1/30/2006)
Abstract
Market selection of product compatibility standards has long been explained through aggregate positive-feedback theoretical models of economic utility. Explaining aggregate patterns of organizational standards adoption requires two additional steps — not only differences between organizations, but also differences within organizations. Here we present a qualitative study of how organizations do (or do not) adopt a new computer server platform standard, namely Linux using PC-compatible hardware. While discussions of Linux typically focus on its open source origins, our respondents were primarily interested in low price. Despite this relative advantage in price, incumbent standards enjoyed other advantages identified by prior theory, namely network effects and switching costs.
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