Willingness to Pay in an Open Source Software Environment.

Author List: Raghu, T. S.; Sinha, Rajiv; Vinze, Ajay; Burton, Orneita;
Information Systems Research, 2009, Volume 20, Issue 2, Page 218-236.
Competition from open source software and free software (OSS/FS) alternatives is causing proprietary software producers to reevaluate product strategies. OSS/FS alternatives complicate an already complex information goods market plagued by piracy concerns. Although producer perspectives on software pricing and piracy controls have been addressed extensively, consumers' perspective and willingness to pay for commercial software is not very well understood. This paper empirically determines willingness to pay for a leading commercial software application (Microsoft Office) in the presence of an OSS/FS alternative. A contingent valuation approach is used to elicit willingness to pay for the application. The research design employs a 2 × 2 × 2 experiment to investigate the impact of preventive control, deterrence control, and OSS/FS alternative. The results indicate that the availability of an OSS/FS alternative has little impact on willingness to pay for Microsoft Office. However, piracy controls significantly increase willingness to pay for Microsoft Office, even in the presence of OSS/FS alternatives.
Keywords: contingent valuation; intellectual property; open source software; software piracy; willingness to pay
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List of Topics

#273 0.196 source open software oss development developers projects developer proprietary community success openness impact paper project associated activity phenomenon peripheral variety
#201 0.189 piracy goods digital property intellectual rights protection presence legal consumption music consumers enforcement publisher pirate producers policies copyright provision profits
#13 0.172 personalization content personalized willingness web pay online likelihood information consumers cues customers consumer services elaboration preference experiment framing customized timing
#207 0.074 design artifacts alternative method artifact generation approaches alternatives tool science generate set promising requirements evaluation problem designed incentives components addressing
#232 0.072 software development product functionality period upgrade sampling examines extent suggests factors considered useful uncertainty previous called complementarities greater cost present
#44 0.067 approach analysis application approaches new used paper methodology simulation traditional techniques systems process based using proposed method present provides various
#280 0.065 control controls formal systems mechanisms modes clan informal used internal literature outsourced outcome theory configuration attempts evolution authority complementary little