Managing External Innovation: The Case of Platform Extensions
Managing External Innovation: The Case of Platform Extensions Managing External Innovation: The Case of Platform Extensions
3 RESEARCH METHOD This chapter describes the method used to produce the deliverables of this research. It is organized in three sections. Section 3.1 describes the unit of analysis. Section 3.2 identifies the study period. Section 3.3 describes the research method and the steps undertaken to answer the research 3.1 Unit of Analysis The unit of analysis is a software platform that provides the ability for external parties to extend its functionalities. Platform extensions can take several forms, for example plugins, add-ons, modules and new features are considered extensions. The research focus is on extension that adds a new feature to the platform and as a result will affect the integrity and over all performance of the platform. Firefox tabbed browser or Apache Application Server new core module are examples of extensions affect the core functionality of the platform. 3.2 Study period The data were collected from March to July 2009. The cases covered in this research are between the years 2000 and 2009. The reason behind the decision of choosing this time period is that several platforms that provided extensibility were launched (e.g. Eclipse platform, OpenOffice.org, and SpringSource.org), some platforms were re-factored or rewritten to support extensibility (e.g. Apache, IBM WebSphere, and MySQL) (See Figure 4, the case platforms timeline). Platforms up to June 2009 were covered in this research to establish a limit for the researcher’s data collection. 27
Figure 4. Case platform timeline 28
- Page 1: MANAGING EXTERNAL INNOVATION: THE C
- Page 4 and 5: ABSTRACT In recent years, high-tech
- Page 6 and 7: TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 INTRODUCTION...
- Page 8 and 9: 4.9 StarOffice.....................
- Page 10 and 11: Figure 22. IBM HTTP Server communit
- Page 12 and 13: Table 20. Collaboration modes for M
- Page 14 and 15: 1 INTRODUCTION Iyer (2006) describe
- Page 16 and 17: 2. How do platform owners encourage
- Page 18 and 19: 1.4 Contributions This research con
- Page 20 and 21: 2.1 Open innovation strategies and
- Page 22 and 23: architecture, production process an
- Page 24 and 25: Innovation Mall Elite Circle Innova
- Page 26 and 27: platform and extends its functional
- Page 28 and 29: Therefore, the platform architectur
- Page 30 and 31: In a modular architecture, the modu
- Page 32 and 33: The distinction between external an
- Page 34 and 35: platform, information, and service
- Page 36 and 37: complexity of the platforms, and to
- Page 38 and 39: • Contribution of external partie
- Page 42 and 43: 3.3 Method The research around regu
- Page 44 and 45: 1. What are the models used by soft
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- Page 48 and 49: four projects was chosen using theo
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- Page 68 and 69: of that is adapting Firefox for use
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Figure 4. <strong>Case</strong> platform timeline<br />
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