Customer satisfaction from open source software services in the presence of commercially licensed software

Abstract

The limited literature on Open Source Software (OSS) customers’ adoption does not provide explanations on how OSS services are adopted by customers in the presence of functionally superior commercially licensed software (CLS). This paper aims to uncover the process that shapes customer satisfaction of OSS services in comparison to CLS. Expectation Disconfirmation Theory (EDT) is adapted and integrated with pre implementation factor model that influences software customers’ expectations including cost, reputation, and experience. The constructed research model is empirically validated using a field survey of OSS and CLS database management system (DBMS) customers in Korea. The theoretical contribution of the paper lies on the application of EDT to explain the wide adoption of OSS DBMS services in the presence of functionally superior CLS DBMSs. Furthermore, this paper integrates EDT with pre-implementation factors for customers’ expectations, which has been considered a limitation of the theory. Among the practical contributions, this study draws attention to the substantive differences between OSS and CLS customers’ expectations. Additionally, it offers initial explanations for the differences in customer behavior for OSS and CLS and the way that customers’ expectations and actual performance are mingled together to form customer satisfaction.