Business Model Generation

Key Resources are required to deliver new features, bug fixes and documentation by carrying out Key Activities using internal assets or outside Key Partnerships1.

Within the various Snapfix software projects in progress or completed, we generally always use inner sourcing and sometimes also use open sourcing. Regardless of the level of exposure of our source code, we use the same tools, processes and methods and with the same mindset as if the project was fully open sourced. In the case of mixed sourced or inner sourced, we treat the input from our early adopters as equivalent to the contributions of source code from community developers.

The Open/Inner Source project is a key resource, with software development as a key activity and the community of early adopters and contributors as a key partnership for Snapfix projects and services.

Within the context of Snapfix I view our early adopters as key resources even though many of them don’t contribute in terms of source code. Community contributors do contribute code or at least direct technical input and their contribution to Snapfix increases our value thus making purchases of the extended and complimentary commercial product more likely. This also leads to the proliferation of the overall community of developers and other contributers in a circular manner2. This community is a source of high quality input3 referred to as “opensourcing”3 and provides equivalent value creation at a lower cost when compared to competitors who use traditional means4. The boundary between Snapfix and our community of early adopters and contributors is an important factor in Open Innovation5267. Deodhar et al. (2012)8 use Segmented Meshing (segmented relating to the nature of the community and meshing referring to the coordination between community segments and the firm) to analyse boundary issues that may exist.

Ågerfalk and Fitzgerald (2008)9 use psychological contract theory (PCT) to highlight important differences between out-sourcing and opensourcing. OSS Ideology plays an important aspect. Organizations cannot dictate or merely request features. The decision as to what features will be added to the service must be conducted in a collaborative manner with the community of users. They also highlight the importance of marketing the project, not to attract customers as Fitzgerald (2006)2 recommended, but rather to satisfy developers social desire for status within the OSS community. Shaikh and Cornford (2010)10 interviews conducted in two multinational organizations support the need for collaboration (as opposed to coercion) in opensourcing. Agile collaboration styles such as those adopted by Snapfix are preferred over waterfall techniques for OSS projects67.

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  1. Osterwalder, A., Pigneur, Y., Clark, T., 2010. Business model generation: a handbook for visionaries, game changers, and challengers. Wiley, Hoboken, NJ. ↩︎

  2. Fitzgerald, B., 2006. The Transformation of Open Source Software. MIS Q. 30, 587–598. ↩︎

  3. Ågerfalk, P.J., Fitzgerald, B., 2008. Outsourcing to an Unknown Workforce: Exploring Opensourcing as a Global Sourcing Strategy. MIS Q. 32, 385–409. PAGE 386 ↩︎

  4. Andersen-Gott, M., Ghinea, G., Bygstad, B., 2012. Why do commercial companies contribute to open source software? Int. J. Inf. Manag. 32, 106–117. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2011.10.003 ↩︎

  5. Deodhar, S.J., Saxena, K.B.C., Gupta, R.K., Ruohonen, M., 2012. Strategies for software-based hybrid business models. J. Strateg. Inf. Syst. 21, 274–294. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsis.2012.06.001 ↩︎

  6. Fitzgerald, B., Stol, K.-J., 2017. Continuous software engineering: A roadmap and agenda. J. Syst. Softw. 123, 176–189. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jss.2015.06.063 ↩︎

  7. Michlmayr, M., Fitzgerald, B., Stol, K., 2015. Why and How Should Open Source Projects Adopt Time-Based Releases? IEEE Softw. 32, 55–63. https://doi.org/10.1109/MS.2015.55 ↩︎

  8. Deodhar, S.J., Saxena, K.B.C., Gupta, R.K., Ruohonen, M., 2012. Strategies for software-based hybrid business models. J. Strateg. Inf. Syst. 21, 274–294. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsis.2012.06.001 ↩︎

  9. Ågerfalk, P.J., Fitzgerald, B., 2008. Outsourcing to an Unknown Workforce: Exploring Opensourcing as a Global Sourcing Strategy. MIS Q. 32, 385–409. ↩︎

  10. Shaikh, M., Cornford, T., 2010. “Letting go of Control” to Embrace Open Source: Implications for Company and Community, in: 2010 43rd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. Presented at the 2010 43rd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, pp. 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1109/HICSS.2010.1 ↩︎