La littérature sur l’open source a largement documenté la manière dont les firmes pouvaient valoriser les logiciels libres en ayant recours à des modèles ouverts ou hybrides. Grâce à une étude exploratoire approfondie menée auprès de professionnels de l’open source, cette recherche contribue à la littérature en montrant que celle-ci a passé sous silence une troisième catégorie de modèle d’affaires. Ces modèles se basent sur diverses stratégies de détournement qui, soit violent , soit contournent les règles des licences libres par le biais de divers procédés techniques.

Product innovation assessment in software sector is a timely topic. Nevertheless, research on that subject is particularly scant. As a result there is a lack of criteria to measure software innovativeness. In a context of theoretical and practical controversy in the open source field, this article assesses open source software innovativeness. Based on almost 500 cases studies and with the collaboration of 125 experts from industry, services and research fields, it suggests an innovation typology supported by the notion of functional added value. It provides also an innovation modelling framework that combines main evaluation methodologies. By showing the shortcomings of widely used innovation metrics, this research supports a new approach of innovativeness assessment specialized in each sector.

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Information Systems (IS) literature shows a huge interest for open source technologies as well as from IT (Information Technology) strategies, business models or organization. Nevertheless, research on the application of open source in safety-critical information systems is particularly scant. By means of an exploratory study, this article describes the reasons why Thales, a firm specialized in safety-critical fields (defense, aircraft industry and security), has adopted open source software technologies. From a theoretical perspective, this articles relies on the technology, organization, environment (TOE) framework and the literature on technology and innovation adoption. This research suggests a model of barriers and motivations to open source software adoption for safety-critical information systems design.

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