Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
1018230 | Journal of Business Research | 2011 | 7 Pages |
Numerous studies examine potential facilitators and inhibitors of open source software (OSS) adoption at the firm level. This study represents the first attempt to propose and test a multi-level framework, examining the effects of five country-level variables and two under-explored firm-level factors on firm OSS adoption. The findings suggest that a country's uncertainty avoidance orientation has a positive impact on OSS adoption, whereas power distance orientation and economic development have a negative impact on OSS adoption. In addition, uncertainty avoidance at the country level sets boundaries for the effect of firm-level IT-based networks in a way that the impact of proprietary IT-based networks becomes stronger, but that of open IT-based networks becomes weaker when uncertainty avoidance is high rather than low. The study also develops public policy implications from these findings.