Since open-source software (OSS) companies are heavily dependent on their developer communities for innovation and OSS business models are little researched, this paper takes an explorative approach to how OSS companies' business models in relation to community interaction and innovation can be characterized. By performing a cross-case analysis of four OSS companies representing different countries and company sizes and their community interaction, two distinctive OSS business models in relation to innovation were established. Community immersion means that the company subsumes into (often only) one OSS project (and community). By creating a commercial product, the company gets funds to support the community in various ways, initiating a positive spiral. This configuration seems more common early on in an OSS company’s development. Community utilization means that the company benefits directly from the OSS commitment, gaining e.g. brand recognition. By adding paid developers into the community, the project is sponsored and enhanced.

It may seem controversial that open-source software (OSS), i.e. software created by voluntary contributions that is available to use, change, and distribute for free, can be utilized for business purposes. Yet, for some firms, commercial OSS software products are the primary source of revenue. In this thesis, these companies are referred to as OSS vendors. Although some OSS vendors have existed for more than thirty years, how they conduct their business has not been extensively studied.

Business models as a concept has been widely used in the information and communications technology (ICT) industry, often when describing firms working with OSS. In that context business models often refer to the offering, i.e. the products the firm offers to its customers and how revenues are collected. However, in academia the business model concept has evolved in a broader sense encompassing several fields and into a rich theoretical field itself.

This thesis aims to further the understanding on how OSS vendors conduct their business, by using a business model framework, which has been constructed from business model and management theories. This framework was used to study OSS vendors to investigate the configurations of their business models. A cross-case analysis of four carefully selected OSS vendors searched for generic patterns in these configurations. Furthermore, the cases were also studied regarding sustainability and profitability.

Two generic business model configurations were found, community immersion and community utilization. OSS vendors found configured according to the community immersion business model are deeply involved with, but also dependent on, the main community project that provides the software for the offering. OSS vendors found configured according to the community utilization business model are not dependent on the OSS project to provide their commercial offerings. Rather, the communities are used in marketing providing brand benefits, a base for recruitment, and in lesser degree functioned as quality assurance.

Two of the four studied companies were found to be profitable and sustainable; one operating according to the community immersion business model and the other according to the community utilization business model. The other two companies studied, observed to operate according to the community utilization business model, did not achieve profitability during the time of the study.

The findings should further the understanding of how profitable OSS vendors’ business models could be configured, and thus provide practitioners with an understanding on how different business model configurations can affect their strategies and overall business.

This paper describes and discusses the role of identity in open source software (OSS) innovations. It illustrates identities through four case studies that include the perspectives of OSS communities, OSS companies, and users. The paper concludes that the community may either have its primary function to provide an OSS aura to the OSS company, or it may have its focus on attracting developers and thereby contributing to innovativeness of the OSS community. OSS community identitie sare mainly self-reflective on its contributors, but also help to create rules of the community. Since it is the OSS company that communicates identities to external parties, the coherence and closeness between the OSS company and the community are important.

The objective of this paper is to suggest new business models and supporting arrangements for open source software in the public sector, specifically for municipalities. Methodologically, the study was carried out as a practical inquiry. Results from the initial diagnosis of longitudinal case studies 2005-2008 in a Swedish network of 80 collaborating municipalities, and a survey 2008 to all Swedish national and local authorities, indicated that Swedish municipalities do not use OSS to a large extent for several reasons, and that experience sharing and a supporting framework were requested. As a solution, a semi-open business model framework was suggested. This framework was developed and implemented in the form of action research. Evaluation of the implementation indicated two major conclusions presented in this paper. First, it that a semi-open source business model could strengthen the community, in so motto that the user-driven innovative solutions stay under control of the user organization. This prevents that the customer’s own development efforts in collaborative projects unintentionally are transferred to supplier companies, and need to be re-purchased in the form of packaged solutions, a phenomena that was observed in several previously studied cases. Second, it was concluded that the semi-open source business model can work only if both customer-side and supplier-side can take advantage. An open attitude to enhance fulfilment of the supplier’s drivers, such as commercialization opportunities, is needed from the customer side. Otherwise important knowledge contributions from suppliers may be limited.

Free and Open Source Software has not only increased researchers’ interest about community-driven software development, but lately, interest from commercial actors increased as well. In addition, some scientists have claimed that Open Source Software has entered a new phase: OSS 2.0. Even so, a coherent way of analyzing commercial Open Source ventures is still missing.

Commercial Open Source firms’ strategies are often described using the term “business models”. However, these models often lack stringent structures and have been used primarily to describe the firms’ offerings and methods to earn revenue.

Through the adaptation of an existing, firmly theoretically-based analytical business model framework, this thesis suggests a new analysis model for studying for-profit Open Source companies. In addition, the framework is generically constructed, ensuring its usability for other industries as well. The model consists of three elements: market positions, operational platform and offering.

This particular study concerned four software product vendors, all of which base their products on Open Source Software. When analyzing their business, insights were made about how these firms operated. The result show that there are certain key elements and factors that determine if a company has a sustainable business or not. From the analysis framework, three elements were refined. The main Open Source Software project connects the market positions and the operational platform; and from the offering, the product and service and the revenue model were very important.

The study identified eight key factors which influenced the elements: brand for the product, the company and the Open Source Software project; community, that is the sum of the non-paying users and developers connected to Open Source Software projects; resources, which are community-based resources such as development and testing; legitimacy, the perceived legitimacy regarding licenses and the revenue models; control, i.e. the control the firm has of the software; ability to charge, or how the company can charge for its services; customers, the paying users; and finally volume, which is the number of paying customers.

The findings also indicate that companies interested in working with the open-source community have to be able to balance the demands from both their customers and the community in order to benefit and gain competitive advantage.

Sambruk är en intresseorganisation för kommuner. Syftet är att bedriva gemensam verksamhetsutveckling och sambruk av elektroniska tjänster, som förväntas ge effektivisering i form av ökad produktivitet med bibehållen eller högre kvalitet för medborgare. Ambitionen är att sänka kommunernas kostnader för utveckling och drift av e-tjänster samt att minska ledtiderna för utveckling och införande av tjänsterna. En möjlighet att uppnå dessa mål är att öka användningen av öppen programvara inom Sambruk. Erfarenheterna från genomförda och pågående upphandlingar visar dock på betydande svårigheter att etablera öppen programvara som ett reellt alternativ för Sambruk och dess medlemskommuner. Utifrån dessa erfarenheter har ett förslag till -semi-öppen- programvara utarbetats. Detta förslag har formulerats av forskare som deltar i och studerar Sambruks arbete med verksamhetsutveckling och e-tjänsteinförande. Förslaget är inspirerat av principer bakom öppen programvara, men utformat för att kunna fungera inom sammanslutningen Sambruk. Förslag till licensform kallas här för Sambruk Community License (SCL). Arbetsformer och affärsmodeller som understödjer denna typ av licensform beskrivs i rapporten. Jämförelser görs mellan öppen programvara, semi-öppen programvara (SCL) och proprietär (sluten) programvara.