Abstract: Open source software is developed voluntarily and collaboratively in open source community. This kind of software development model is untraditional and efficient. Open source community mainly consists of software users and open source service provider. Through a three-stage model, this paper studies the marketing strategy of open source service provider and the impact of user innovation on its community participation strategy. The results are as follows. First, if there are less high value users in the market, the service provider should adopt low quality and low price strategy. Otherwise it should adopt high quality and high price strategy. Second, the service provider should avoid free-riding on contributions of others. In order to increase profit from service, it has to put some effort into open source community and improve the quality of open source software. Third, when there are a lot of target users in the service market and the users in the open source community have strong motives to contribute, the service provider should adopt high participation strategy, otherwise it should adopt low participation strategy. This study provides some practical guidance for open source service provider with regard to how to take advantage of and participate in open source community.

Key words: open source software, open source community, user innovation, community participation

摘要： 开源软件由开源社区内的成员自发参与并协同完成开发,是一种高效的、有别于传统的软件生产模式。开源社区的主要成员有软件用户及开源软件服务提供商。本文通过构建三阶段模型,研究了服务提供商的市场策略及开源社区内用户创新对服务提供商参与策略的影响。研究发现:(1)若市场上高价值用户较少,服务提供商应采取低质量、低价格的市场策略,否则应采取高质量、高价格策略。(2)服务提供商要避免搭便车行为,即为了增加服务利润,它必须投入资源参与开源社区、提高软件质量。(3)当服务市场上目标用户较多且开源社区内用户参与动机较强时,服务提供商应采取高参与策略,否则采取低参与策略。本文的研究对服务提供商如何利用和参与开源社区具有指导意义。

关键词: 开源软件, 开源社区, 用户创新, 社区参与