Collaboration, peer review and open source software

Open source software development may be superior to proprietary development because the open source organizational form naturally minimizes transactions costs associated with privately distributed information. This manifests itself in the ability of open source communities to encourage critical peer review and the sharing of ideas. When these activities are important, the open source organizational form may do better than a proprietary organizational form. My results suggest why open source is particularly powerful when maintainability of software is critical, and also suggest that the founder of a software project may be more likely to choose open source if there is an existing dominant proprietary software project.     

公共产品的私人供给--以开放源代码软件开发为例

公共产品如何供给的问题,是福利经济学、财政学等关注的焦点问题。在什么情况下,用什么样的激励制度才能促进私人供给公共产品的积极性,长期以来悬而未决。近期出现的开放源代码软件为我们提供了新的案例。开放源代码软件倡导自由和开放的精神,完全打破了以往的商业惯例。开放源代码软件符合公共产品的基本特征,对开放源代码软件特殊供给方式的研究,能使我们在探讨公共产品的私人供给方面开拓更广的视野。同时对开放源代码软件生产过程的研究,还揭示出一种新型的生产关系正在逐步形成。     

Returns from social capital in open source software networks

Open Source Software projects base their operation on a collaborative structure for knowledge exchange in the form of provision or reception of information, expertise and feedback on the creation of source code. Here, we address the direction of these knowledge flows among projects throughout social networks and their impact on project success. We identify the roles of membership or contribution that individuals play within projects. We found that connections through contributors who bring their knowledge to the project, improve project success, and that connection through members, who transfer their knowledge towards other projects, enhance project success. Finally, we found that ties through shared membership and contributions hamper project success. The analysis of knowledge flows and their impact on project success imply a translation of returns from investment in social capital, where investment takes the shape of knowledge flows and the returns mean the projects’ diffusion over the network.

Pragmatism, not ideology: Historical perspectives on IBM’s adoption of open-source software

We track IBM’s approach to software production and commercialization between 1950 and the present. We find that in the 1950s IBM followed what today would be called an open-source model – its software source code was open, free of charge, and written collaboratively with its users. By the mid 1980s, all of these attributes had been reversed – IBM’s software was closed source, sold or leased independently of hardware sales, and written without the collaboration of its users. More recently, the company has been in a state of transition, achieving a balance between free, open-source software and proprietary software that still generates 20% of its revenues. We interpret these radical swings in light of the substantial changes that have taken place since the 1950s in the costs and benefits of open source, bundled, and collaborative software vis-à-vis the alternatives.     

Designing a forecasting analysis to understand the diffusion of open source software in the year 2010

Open source software (OSS) is being considered the new paradigm of software distribution. As contrasted with the traditional software marketing model, OSS pursues the freedom to have access to open source and offers several advantages to enterprises. These advantages include saving costs related to Information Systems and Technologies (IS/IT) and the possibility of adapting to changing organizational requirements. However, the recent forthcoming of OSS prevents us from knowing the real impact it has today on social and organizational fields. Having considered this obstacle, the authors have defined a foreseeable setting for OSS diffusion and adoption by means of a forecasting study based on the Delphi method for the year 2010. The findings reveal the levels of OSS diffusion for this year according to the main applications, geographic regions and industries. In a complementary manner, the authors have studied the elements of success as well as the most relevant obstacles for diffusing and adopting technological solutions based on OSS.     

资本结构与产品市场竞争强度

资本结构与产品市场竞争之间的关系 ,涉及公司金融学和产业经济学两个过去不相关的学术领域。本文对此提出了一个理论假设并建立了相关的经济模型 ,目的是检验企业的资本结构决策与其在产品市场上的竞争战略之间的关系。理论分析表明 ,企业的资本结构选择作为企业向市场发出的一项承诺 ,它向行业内的其他企业表示企业的竞争行为将更加强硬或更加温和 ,即它具有显著的信号发送功能 ,同时能够产生战略效应。企业的资本结构与其所在的产品市场上的竞争强度之间具有显著的正相关关系。我们以深、沪两地的上市公司为例进行的实证研究有效地支持了我们上述的假设。这对企业经营战略的制订与实施具有重要的启示。     

Competition and product cycles with non-diversifiable risk

This paper analyzes the growth effects of competition in a product-cycle model with innovation, imitation and non-diversifiable risk. Imitation leads to oligopolistic competition and innovation restores a monopoly in the market. In contrast to the models that assume diversifiable risk, this paper shows the following. Positive profits in the oligopoly stages of the product cycle are necessary for technological change. A little intensity of competition is growth diminishing. Only if the intensity of competition exceeds a critical level, its increase enhances growth.      

Price Competition and Product Differentiation When Consumers Care for the Environment

Increasing environmental awareness may affect the pleasure of consuming a good for which an environment friendly substitute is available. In this paper, we investigate the market implication of product differentiation when customers are concerned about environmental aspects of the good. We use the spatial duopoly model to determine how environmental concern affects prices, product characteristics and market shares of the competing firms. Our analysis is based on a two-stage game, where at the first stage each firm chooses the characteristic of its product. At the second stage, each firm chooses its price. Equilibrium prices and market shares are affected by consumer awareness of the environment and by the higher costs for producing those goods. As for the Nash equilibria in the characteristics, we find three equilibria depending on the parameter constellation. In order to find out whether the market functions in an optimal way, we determine the choice of environmental characteristics by a welfare maximizing authority. The objective of the paper is to understand the environmental quality choices facing firms and to provide policies that would align private choices with the social optimum.JEL classifications: L11, Q38, H23     

Cartel sustainability with vertical product differentiation: Price versus quantity competition

In the context of a vertically differentiated duopoly, we analyse the influence of the degree of differentiation on cartel sustainability, under both price and quantity competition. We find that, under both Bertrand and Cournot competition, the effect of vertical product differentiation on sustainability of the collusive equilibrium is unclear. It is shown that, given a degree of differentiation, price collusion is more sustainable than quantity collusion.     

Competition Policy towards Vertical Restraints in Europe and the United States

Following a brief review of the economic analysis of vertical restraints, we discuss current policy standards in both Europe and the United States. Since 1981, U.S. policy towards these restraints has been lax, and no restraints were challenged during the 12-year period between January 1981 and January 1993. More recently, the pendulum has shifted back somewhat and there is renewed interest by enforcement officials in this area. In contrast, European policy standards have been more stringent, and have paid particular attention to vertically imposed restraints that can limit trade among member countries. To a large part, their different treatment may primarily reflect the lack of consensus as to their long-run economic consequences. Consistent policy standards across jurisdictions are not likely to arise until there is general consensus as to the economic implications of these restraints.     

竞争战略、资本结构与企业业绩

文章认为,对于竞争性行业和垄断性行业的资本结构与企业业绩的相关性,可以尝试从不同的理论出发点来解释,对于竞争性行业而言,其保守的财务政策(低负债率)可能是基于行业竞争程度、资本市场条件以及企业竞争战略的理性商业选择,不一定是以往学者从代理问题出发得出的股权融资偏好。我国监管机构基于抑制股权融资偏好行为而制定的一系列股权融资约束似乎并未考虑到行业竞争程度的不同,这种资本市场的配置低效率使得我国上市公司面临着过度监管和监管不足并存的现象。     

垄断竞争、中间产品与城市规模

从分工经济与城市规模之间关系的角度,运用Dixit-Stiglitz模型框架下经济活动的规模收益递增原理,在城市内部最终产品生产企业利润最大化的条件下,系统讨论了投入的中间产品种类数与城市人口规模之间的关系、中间产品之间的替代性对城市均衡人口规模的反馈作用,以及城市内部中间产品专业化水平和互补经济程度之间的关系。在此基础上,利用广东省城市增长的部分数据进行了实证分析。认为:经济活动的集聚形成了城市;在城市体积增长和城市系统随产业的专业化与多样化发展而演进的过程中,城市规模经济的实现除了依赖生产要素流动外,最终产品生产企业对中间产品投入的需求也具有不可忽视的作用。     

Profitability of price and quantity strategies in a duopoly with vertical product differentiation

Using a model according to Mussa and Rosen (1978) and Bonanno and Haworth (1998) we consider a sub-game perfect equilibrium of a two-stage game in a duopolistic industry in which the products of the firms are vertically differentiated. In the industry, there are a high quality firm and a low quality firm. In the first stage of the game, the firms choose their strategic variables, price or quantity. In the second stage, they determine the levels of their strategic variables. We will show that, under an assumption about distribution of consumers' preference, we obtain the result that is similar to Singh and Vives (1984)' proposition (their Proposition 3) in the case of substitutes with nonlinear demand functions. That is, in the first stage of the game, a quantity strategy dominates a price strategy for both firms. Received: April 23, 1999; revised version: May 31, 2000     

保险市场竞争程度与市场结构的关系研究

本文运用H统计量研究我国财寿险市场的竞争程度,并进一步通过回归分析与相关分析研究竞争程度与市场结构的交互影响因素.研究结果表明,1999-2006年间我国的财险市场可以判断为垄断竞争的市场结构,而同期我国寿险市场则属于寡头垄断的市场结构.2003年保险业费率市场化的改革对财险和寿险都有明显的影响,直接加剧了竞争程度.竞争度与财险市场公司数量正相关,与寿险市场公司数量负相关.竞争度与集中度的关系在财险业为负相关,而在寿险业根据采用不同的集中度指标的不同考察结果会有所不同.     

产品市场竞争与高管人员激励研究——基于中国上市公司的面板数据

不同行业的企业会面临不同的市场竞争状况,这些不同的竞争状况会不同程度地影响公司高管的努力程度,同时也影响着企业对其高管的激励机制。在中国上市公司中,效益良好的企业面临更高的市场竞争时,会对其高管进行更多的激励;而对于效益低下的企业则正好相反。     

易发生价格竞争的产业特征及企业策略

价格竞争已是我国企业惯常采用的策略行为。本文以彩电行业为例 ,从产品特征、产业生命周期等 6大方面揭示了易发生价格竞争的产业特征 ,提出产业内企业可行的价格战应对策略 ,其结论具有一般性 ,并为预测价格战的发生提供了微观基础。     

Competition and bargaining in vertical relationships with market uncertainty

We go through the decision to vertically integrate or its opposite, outsource, in an uncertain environment. We consider two different market strategies, price setting and quantity setting and two different vertical relationships: an (imperfectly) competitive one following Stackelberg mode and a more cooperative one with bargaining. In the first scenario, with certainty, price and quantity settings are alike, while with uncertainty the ranking changes. If a bargaining framework is adopted instead, quantity setting under uncertainty leads to an asymmetric distribution of realized gains along the vertical chain. Price setting turns out to be more equitable for firms and preferable even by consumers.

论企业资本结构与产品市场竞争战略的关系——基于西北五省上市公司年报数据的实证分析

西方国家的实证研究表明,企业的资本结构和产品市场竞争战略之间存在密不可分的关系。本文运用多元回归模型,利用中国西北五省2003年-2005年的上市公司年报数据,对企业资本结构与产品市场战略的关系进行了回归分析。结果表明,企业的产品市场决策与企业债务水平（DEBT）正相关,与长期负债水平（LDEBT）负相关,企业的盈利性水平（FIT）、企业规模（SIZE）和企业的产品市场竞争力（PET）正相关。我国企业应从资本结构和产品市场竞争相结合的角度制定企业战略,从而获得更大的竞争优势。     

垂直差异化与合谋稳定性关系分析

市场行为中的默契合谋能使企业获得超额利润,现存的关于生产同质品和差异化产品的经验性研究经常能发现默契合谋的证据.在现实经济的默契合谋行为中,不同的成本结构适用于不同的经济环境或者不同的行业、产业分析,也直接影响着合谋和背离合谋所得的利润,对合谋稳定性有着重要的影响.在垂直差异化的不同成本(固定成本、可变成本)结构下,企业参与竞争的不同竞争类型(古诺竞争和伯川德竞争)对合谋稳定性的影响也是有差异的.     

Price Competition and Consumer Externalities in a Vertically Differentiated Duopoly with Information Disparities

In this paper, we extend the model of vertical product differentiation to consider information disparities about quality differences and their effects on price competition. If uninformed consumers overestimate vertical differentiation, asymmetric information is a source of market power and informed consumers exert positive externalities on high quality product purchasers and negative externalities on low quality product purchasers. Such a result is consistent with the fact that information undermines brand. If uninformed consumers are skeptical, adverse selection issues arise and market demands may be perfectly inelastic to prices. With elastic demands equilibrium prices may be either distorted downwards or reflect real quality if the share of informed consumers is suffciently high. Therefore, with skeptical consumers firms may want either to signal quality or subsidize information provision.