探討微軟採用開源軟體策略的原因

Abstract

身為軟體業的龍頭，微軟素來以反對開源軟體而聞名。但現在，越來越多的證據顯示微軟已經開始擁抱開源軟體。本篇論文旨在探討造成微軟改變的原因。在本篇論文中，筆者採用扎根理論並探討三個議題：微軟策略方向的改變(開放式創新比封閉式創新更能創造價值)、微軟在策略條整的過程中如何資源份配、如何在商業模式上執行改變。文中所有資料來自於自1991年到2015年的次級資料。筆者的結論為：擁抱開源軟體讓微軟更有機會在下一世代再次成為平台的領導者。

Microsoft used to be a leader in software industry and was famous for anti-open-source for a long time. However, more and more evidences show that Microsoft had changed their attitude and start to embrace open source. Why and how Microsoft make such a huge change? This is what this thesis want to discuss about. In this paper, I use building theory (Eisenhardt, 1989) and set three hypnosis - the direction of Microsoft’s change, how they relocate the resource, and how they implement the change in their business model. Those information were collected from second hand or third hand reports from 1991 to 2015. My conclusion is that: embracing Open Source increase the chance for Microsoft to be a platform leader again.