The adoption of open source software by singaporean companies

Queensland University of Technology The Adoption of Open Source Software by Singaporean Companies A dissertation submitted by Edmund Koh Ker Yuan, Bachelor of Information Technology For the award of Masters of Information Technology Jan 2009 Queensland University of Technology Edmund Koh Abstract Based on collaboration rather than competition, Open Source Software provides a new dynamic in the development and use of software systems As such it has the potential to make a significant legal, social and economic impact on the industry While its origins trace back to the start of the software industry, the recent success of the Linux operation system, Apache web server or the Mozilla Firefox Internet Browser provide impetus to the growth of interest in this movement However, while a number of studies have been conducted on its development, few have provided empirical evidence of its adoption within the South East Asian context This study aims to investigate factors leading to the adoption of Open Source Software in Singaporean Organisations The research has found that the adoption of Open Source Software is driven by the perception of a cost advantage The organisations interviewed have acknowledged cost as being one of their biggest concerns and top priorities While costs were stated to be of major concern to the organisations, objective measures of cost such as Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and Return on Investment (ROI) were rarely used by the organisations studied This perception of cost saving is found to be led by industry sources such as publications, conferences and websites The next significant finding is the need for increased open source software skills in the industry One of the major drivers of Open Source Software Adoption in the organisations is that they posses pre-existing skills in Open Source Software use This enables them to better mitigate risk and to lower their training costs The final principal finding is that Open Source Software appears to be used mainly in systems infrastructure applications Organisations reported a large degree of satisfaction including increased stability, scalability and cost effectiveness Issues remain with Open Source Software’s manageability, its quality of support and ease of use Page i Queensland University of Technology Edmund Koh Certification of Dissertation I Edmund Koh Ker Yuan hereby certify that ideas, experimental work, results, analyses, software and conclusions reported in this dissertation are entirely my own effort, except where otherwise acknowledged I also certify that work is original, and has not been previously submitted for any other award, except where otherwise acknowledged _ 16/01/2009 Signature of Candidate Date Page ii Queensland University of Technology Edmund Koh Acknowledgements I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has provided me with assistance and support for the duration of this study In particular, I would like to thank the following people who have helped make this thesis a reality I would like to thank my supervisors, Dr Dietrich Splettstoesser from the University of Southern Queensland for the beginning stages my research, Dr Greg Timbrell and Professor Alan Underwood from the Queensland University of Technology who have help me focus on the task at hand I would also like to thank Ed Fitzgerald, Guy Gable and Chan Taizan for their academic assistance I would also like to thank Steve McWhirter and Zon Lim from Red Hat Asia Pacific for providing me with access to their customers and insight into the operations of their organisation Finally I would like to thank my family whose support and patience made this research possible Page iii Queensland University of Technology Edmund Koh Table of Contents Abstract i Certification of Dissertation ii Acknowledgements .iii List of Figures ix List of Tables x Introduction 1.1 Background to the Research 1.2 Justification for the Study 1.2.1 Size of the Industry 1.2.2 Literature Review 1.2.3 Benefits to Practitioners 1.3 Research Problem 1.4 Methodology 1.5 Principal Findings 1.6 Contribution 1.7 Outline of the report Background 12 2.1 History of Propriety Software Development 12 2.1.1 The Birth of the software Industry 13 2.1.2 Bundled Software 15 2.1.4 Software Crisis 19 2.1.5 Standards and the need for interoperability 20 2.2 Emergence of Open Source Software 21 2.2.1 History of Open Source Software 22 2.2.2 Linux 27 2.2.3 Apache 29 2.2.4 Sendmail 30 2.2.5 Mozilla 31 2.3 Summary 31 Literature Review 34 3.1 Unbundled Proprietary Software and Property Rights 34 Page iv Queensland University of Technology Edmund Koh 3.1.1 Patents 35 3.1.2 Copyright 36 3.1.3 Trade Secrets 37 3.1.4 Trademarks 38 3.2 Definition of Open Source 39 3.2.1 Berkeley Style Licenses (BSD-style) {Appendix A} 43 3.2.2 GNU General Public License (GPL) {Appendix B} 43 3.2.3 GNU Library General Public License (LGPL) {Appendix C} 44 3.2.4 Mozilla Public License (MozPL or MPL) {Appendix D} 45 3.3 Open Source Development Characteristics 45 3.3.1 Developers are users 46 3.3.2 Community 46 3.3.2.1 Balance of centralization and decentralization 46 3.3.2.2 Meritocratic culture 47 3.3.3 3.4 Motivation 47 Advantages 48 3.4.1 Costs 48 3.4.2 Customisation 50 3.4.3 Quality 51 3.4.4 Transparency 52 3.4.5 Reduced Vendor Control 53 3.5 Limitations 53 3.5.1 Development Guarantee 54 3.5.2 Publicity 54 3.5.3 Liability 55 3.6 Open Source Software Successes 56 3.7 Research on Open Source Software 56 3.7.1 Reasons for Open Source Initiatives by firms 58 3.7.2 Open Source Software diffusion 59 3.8 3.9 Research Question 60 Software Adoption 61 3.9.1 Technology Adoption Cycles 61 Page v Queensland University of Technology Edmund Koh 3.9.2  Factors in Software adoption 66  3.9.3  Adoption Frameworks 67  3.9.3.1  Technology-push, need-pull 68  3.9.3.2  Information Systems Strategic Planning 70  3.9.3.3  Glynn, Fitzgerald and Exton Framework for OSS Adoption 74  3.9.5  Framework of Open Source Software Adoption 76  3.10  4.  Conclusion 81  Methodology 83  4.1  Research Design 83  4.1.1  Research Paradigms 83  4.1.2  Qualitative Research 86  4.2  Case Study 87  4.2.1 Validity and reliability 88  4.2.1.1  Construct Validity 89  4.2.1.2  Internal Validity 89  4.2.1.3  External Validity 89  4.2.1.4  Reliability 89  4.2.2  Research design and primary data collection 90  4.2.3 Sampling and case selection 90  4.2.4 Case and interview protocol 91  4.2.5 Data collection and case analysis 93  4.2.6 Ethical considerations 95  4.3  5.  Conclusion 96  Results 98  5.1  Interview Administration 98  5.2  Framework of Open Source Software Adoption 100  5.3  Pilot Survey 102  5.4  In - Depth Interviews 103  5.4.1  Organisation A 103  5.4.1.1  Internal Organisational Factors 103  5.4.1.2  External Organisational Factors 104  5.4.1.3  Internal Information Technology Factors 106  Page vi Queensland University of Technology Edmund Koh 5.4.1.4 External Information Technology Factors 107 5.4.1.5 Use of Open Source 109 5.4.2 Organisation B 112 5.4.2.1 Internal Organisational Factors 113 5.4.2.2 External Organisational Factors 113 5.4.2.3 Internal Information Technology Factors 115 5.4.2.4 External Information Technology Factors 116 5.4.2.5 Use of Open Source 117 5.4.3 Organisation C 119 5.4.3.1 Internal Organisational Factors 120 5.4.3.2 External Organisational Factors 120 5.4.3.3 Internal Information Technology Factors 122 5.4.3.4 External Information Technology Factors 124 5.4.3.5 Use of Open Source 125 5.4.4 Organisation D 127 5.4.4.1 Internal Organisational Factors 127 5.4.4.2 External Organisational Factors 128 5.4.4.3 Internal Information Technology Factors 129 5.4.4.4 External Information Technology Factors 131 5.4.4.5 Use of Open Source 132 5.4.5 Organisation E 135 5.4.5.1 Internal Organisational Factors 135 5.4.5.2 External Organisational Factors 136 5.4.5.3 Internal Information Technology Factors 138 5.4.5.4 External Information Technology Factors 139 5.4.5.5 Use of Open Source 140 5.4.6 Organisation F 143 5.4.6.1 Internal Organisational Factors 143 5.4.6.2 External Organisational Factors 144 5.4.6.3 Internal Information Technology Factors 146 5.4.6.4 External Information Technology Factors 148 5.4.6.5 Use of Open Source 149 Page vii Queensland University of Technology 5.5 Conclusion 152 Data Analysis 155 6.1 Results from the Prior Study 156 6.2 Organisational Analysis 161 6.3 Cross Case Analysis 173 6.3.1 Internal Organisational Factors 173 6.3.3 External Organisational Environment 180 6.3.4 External Information Technology 183 6.3.5 Conclusion concerning the adoption of Open Source Software 186 6.4 Edmund Koh Conclusion 195 Conclusions 198 7.1 Summary of study 198 7.1.1 Research Question 198 7.1.2 Research Design And Methodology 198 7.1.3 Framework of Open Source Software Adoption 200 7.2 Results from the Prior Study 202 7.3 Summary of Findings 207 7.4 Contribution of Research to Knowledge and Practice 209 7.4.1 Contribution to Research 209 7.4.2 Implications for Practitioners 210 7.5 Limitations of the Study 211 7.6 Directions for Future Research 211 7.7 Summary 213 References 215 Page viii Queensland University of Technology Edmund Koh List of Figures Figure 2.1: Vertically Integrated Mainframe and Minicomputer Industry Structure 15 Figure 2.2: PC Industry Structure 20 Figure 3.1: Open Source Framework 45 Figure 3.2: Overall TCO by Environment 50 Figure 3.3: Rogers Technology Adoption Cycle 62 Figure 3.4: Hype Cycle for Open-Source Software 64 Figure 3.5: Technology Push vs Needs Pull 68 Figure 3.6: Ward and Griffiths ISSP Framework 72 Figure 3.7: Glynn, Fitzgerald and Exton Framework 75 Figure 3.8: Framework of Open Source Software Adoption 79 Figure 4.1: Outline 88 Figure 6.1: Research Model 101 Figure 5.1: Revised Framework of Open Source Software Adoption 158 Figure 7.1: Research Model 201 Figure 7.1: Revised Framework of Open Source Software Adoption 204 Page ix Queensland University of Technology Q37 Edmund Koh 0.1553 0.1553 0.1553 0.4753 0.3753 -0.5153 0.2753 -0.5153 0.2753 -0.5153 0.2753 -0.1953 0.5953 -0.2953 0.4953 -0.2753 0.5153 One-way ANOVA: C5 versus C4 Analysis of Variance for C5 Source DF SS MS C4 5.354 0.892 Error 343 184.600 0.538 Total 349 189.954 Level Q31 Q32 Q33 Q34 Q35 Q36 Q37 N 50 50 50 50 50 50 50 Pooled StDev = Mean 2.7400 2.7400 2.7400 3.0600 2.9600 2.9800 2.8600 StDev 0.5646 0.7508 0.7508 0.9564 0.5330 0.6224 0.8574 0.7336 F 1.66 P 0.130 Individual 95% CIs For Mean Based on Pooled StDev + -+ -+ -+-( -* -) ( -* -) ( -* -) ( -* -) ( -* -) ( -* -) ( -* -) + -+ -+ -+-2.60 2.80 3.00 3.20 Tukey's pairwise comparisons Family error rate = 0.100 Individual error rate = 0.00741 Critical value = 3.81 Intervals for (column level mean) - (row level mean) Q31 Q32 Q33 Q34 Q35 Q36 Q32 -0.3953 0.3953 Q33 -0.3953 0.3953 -0.3953 0.3953 Q34 -0.7153 0.0753 -0.7153 0.0753 -0.7153 0.0753 Q35 -0.6153 0.1753 -0.6153 0.1753 -0.6153 0.1753 -0.2953 0.4953 Q36 -0.6353 0.1553 -0.6353 0.1553 -0.6353 0.1553 -0.3153 0.4753 -0.4153 0.3753 Q37 -0.5153 0.2753 -0.5153 0.2753 -0.5153 0.2753 -0.1953 0.5953 -0.2953 0.4953 -0.2753 0.5153 Appendix E Queensland University of Technology Edmund Koh Appendix F Interview Introductory Letter Appendix F Queensland University of Technology Edmund Koh Appendix F Queensland University of Technology Edmund Koh Appendix F Queensland University of Technology Edmund Koh Appendix F Queensland University of Technology Edmund Koh Appendix G Interview Protocol Appendix G Queensland University of Technology Edmund Koh Appendix G Queensland University of Technology Edmund Koh Appendix G Queensland University of Technology Edmund Koh Appendix G Queensland University of Technology Edmund Koh Appendix G Queensland University of Technology Edmund Koh Appendix G Queensland University of Technology Edmund Koh Appendix G Queensland University of Technology Edmund Koh Appendix G Queensland University of Technology Edmund Koh Appendix G Queensland University of Technology Edmund Koh Appendix G ... leading to the adoption of Open Source Software in Singaporean Organisations The research has found that the adoption of Open Source Software is driven by the perception of a cost advantage The organisations... increased open source software skills in the industry One of the major drivers of Open Source Software Adoption in the organisations is that they posses pre-existing skills in Open Source Software. .. involves the investigation of factors leading to the adoption of Open Source Software The purpose of this chapter is to provide a review of the literature leading to the emergence of Open Source Software