An empirical investigation into the adoption of open source software in Information Technology outsourcing organizations

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify the influence of outsourcing on open-source software (OSS) and further investigate the factors that impact the adoption of OSS in global information technology (IT) outsourcing organizations serviced by Indian IT services organizations. Design/methodology/approach – The authors developed a conceptual model that describes the factors influencing the OSS adoption by using the technology-organization-environment framework. This quantitative explanatory study used self-administered questionnaire to collect data from 482 middle and top management employees of Indian IT services organizations. The authors analyzed the data using partial least squares to test this conceptual model. Findings – The proposed conceptual model identified the factors which play a significant role in OSS adoption such as reliability, legal concern, software costs, management support, OSS support availability and software vendor. In contrast, this study did not find enough evidence that IT outsourcing was a significant determinant of OSS adoption. Research limitations/implications – The main limitation of the research is that it is focused on global IT outsourcing organizations (clients) serviced by Indian IT services providers (vendors). Hence, the authors cannot generalize the finding to other regions. Also, the analysis is based on the view point of employees in vendors. Views of clients’ employees must be analyzed and triangulated with current evidence. Practical implications – IT services providers can offer “OSS as a service” for its clients and help them address the gaps in support availability and achieve reduction in total cost of ownership of software. Originality/value – IT services providers can use this research model to increase their understanding of why some IT outsourcing organizations choose to adopt OSS, while seemingly similar ones facing similar market conditions do not.

Analysis of the factors influencing adoption of 3D design digital technologies in Colombian firms

“…If the firm's senior management understands the advantages and usefulness that technologies can offer, they will be willing to help develop the capacity for 3DDT: infrastructure, management capabilities and employees' competence (Fosso et al , 2018; Martins et al , 2019). Other studies have shown that senior management support has a significant impact on a firm's adoption of information technologies (Hsu et al , 2014; Maduku et al , 2016; Ramanathan and Krishnan, 2015; Lorente-Martínez et al , 2020)…”

“…If the firm's senior management understands the advantages and usefulness that technologies can offer, they will be willing to help develop the capacity for 3DDT: infrastructure, management capabilities and employees' competence (Fosso et al, 2018;Martins et al, 2019). Other studies have shown that senior management support has a significant impact on a firm's adoption of information technologies (Hsu et al, 2014;Maduku et al, 2016;Ramanathan and Krishnan, 2015;Lorente-Mart ınez et al, 2020) Subsequently, in the organizational dimension, technological competence was found to have a strong impact on the intention to adopt: as long as the 3D design digital technologies are compatible with the existing technological architecture, the likelihood of adoption will be higher (H3). Similarly, the results indicate that 3DDT adoption depends on technological competence in terms of organizational infrastructure, employees' technological training and technology-related experience (Alsaad et al, 2017;Chana and Chong, 2013;AlBar and Hoque, 2019).…”

Classifying Organizational Adoption of Open Source Software: A Proposal

“…Open Source Software (OSS) usage had previously been the preserve of programmers and software experts [5,6], but this 'second wave' [7] of OSS adoption by businesses and non-technical users has led to greater press and academic attention [8]. However, much of this attention has focused on OSS development methods and processes [9], with studies of adoption being under-represented [10][11][12][13]. This paper aims to partly address this gap through the achievement of the following objectives:…”

“…While there are numerous examples where these theories have been applied to studies of technology adoption (see [23] and [24] for OSS specific examples), there has been some criticism that this application has become formulaic, leading to a degree of stagnation [15]. Despite this criticism, there are few studies of OSS adoption [10][11][12], and this is an area where understanding remains limited [25].…”