A longitudinal analysis of trajectory changes in the software industry: the case of the content management application segment

Abstract

The software industry is changing as a result of the rising influence both of packaged and of Free/Libre/Open Source Software (FLOSS), but the change trajectory of the industry is still not well understood. This article aims to contribute to clarifying software industry evolution through a longitudinal study, using Industry Change Trajectory Theory to explain and predict the evolution of the Content Management Systems (CMS) segment and the extent to which its results can be generalized to the overall software industry.Our data analysis shows that CMS players are experiencing a modification of their segments' change trajectory. While McGahan in 2004 recognized that the software industry was in a creative change trajectory, it has subsequently faced strong competition on its core assets, (i.e. applications) and the empirical results of our longitudinal study from 2002 to 2007 show the CMS segment is now in a radical change trajectory, due to the rapid obsolescence of its core activities. The paper discusses the changes affecting the segment, and proposes extending the outcome of the study to other segments of the software industry.

Knowledge Connectivity in an Adverse Context: Global Value Chains and Pakistani Offshore Service Providers

“…Project durations range from 2 to 5 years. Software applications are developed for a range of platforms, from desktop computers to various web-based platforms, to smartphones (Currie and Seltsikas 2001;Jain and Khurana 2016;Vitari and Ravarini 2009). OSPs are required to possess relatively high levels of technical capabilities and experience (Duan et al 2010;Duan and Zhu 2011;Lema 2010Lema , 2011Lema , 2015Xudong et al 2008).…”

Democratizing Business Software: Small Business Ecosystems for Open Source Applications

“…Content Management Systems are software applications "that allow the creation, collection, management, publication and modification of the content of web sites" [Vitari and Ravarini, 2009]. CMS software was explicitly designed for use by business end-users, making Web management tasks accessible to nonprogrammers.…”

“…With CMS, the "responsibility for content deployment partially or completely moved from the Webmaster and his/her team out to the actual authors within the business" [McKeever, 2003]. CMS is an important, fast-growing business application market (e.g., Vitari and Ravarini, 2009;McKeever, 2003) whose use has been tied to higher retail ecommerce sales (e.g., Ayanso, Lertwachara, and Thongpapanl, 2010) and improved financial results in small and medium sized businesses (e.g., Johnston, Wade, and McClean, 2007 [Allen, 2009]. Extensions (also known as modules, or plug-ins) are self-contained pieces of software code that interact with a software package through application programming interfaces (APIs).…”

“…Open source CMS accounts for the top three most used CMS software packages, six out of the top ten, and fourteen out of the top twenty-five, with over 80 percent of website domains using open source. Open source CMS began to appear in 2002; by 2007, open source CMS had evolved similar functionality to proprietary software packages costing, in some cases, hundreds of thousands of U.S. dollars[Vitari and Ravarini, 2009].Vitari and Ravirini [2009] observed in their five-year study of CMS evolution that "the development of new functions by [open source] CMS developers appears faster than by packaged CMS developers. "One open source CMS project, WordPress, currently dominates the market with an over 50 percent share of allCMS-backed websites [w3tech.com, 2011]; the nearest competitor, the open source Joomla!…”

Technological competition: a path towards commoditization or differentiation? Some evidence from a comparison of e-book readers

“…In line with McGahan's (2004) industry change trajectory theory, 4 Vitari and Ravarini (2009) suggest that the industry is constantly redeveloping its assets -its software applications and the supporting hardware. It follows a creativechange trajectory because core software-industry activities are not believed to be threatened by rapid obsolescence.…”