Software Ecosystems Governance - A Systematic Literature Review and Research Agenda

Carina Alves, Joyce Oliveira, Slinger Jansen

2017

Abstract

The field of Software ecosystems is a growing discipline that has been investigated from managerial, social, and technological perspectives. The governance of software ecosystems requires a careful balance of control and autonomy given to players. Orchestrators that are able to balance their own interests by bringing joint benefits for other players are likely to create healthy ecosystems. Selecting appropriate governance mechanisms is a key problem involved in the management of proprietary and open source ecosystems. This article summarizes current literature on software ecosystem governance by framing prevalent definitions, classifying governance mechanisms, and proposing a research agenda. We performed a systematic literature review of 63 primary studies. Several studies describe governance mechanisms, which were classified in three categories: value creation, coordination of players, and organizational openness and control. The number of studies indicates that the domain of software ecosystems and their governance is maturing. However, further studies are needed to address central challenges involved on the implementation of appropriate governance mechanisms that can nurture the health of ecosystems. We present a research agenda with several opportunities for researchers and practitioners to explore these issues.

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Paper Citation


in Harvard Style

Alves C., Oliveira J. and Jansen S. (2017). Software Ecosystems Governance - A Systematic Literature Review and Research Agenda . In Proceedings of the 19th International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems - Volume 3: ICEIS, ISBN 978-989-758-249-3, pages 215-226. DOI: 10.5220/0006269402150226


in Bibtex Style

@conference{iceis17,
author={Carina Alves and Joyce Oliveira and Slinger Jansen},
title={Software Ecosystems Governance - A Systematic Literature Review and Research Agenda},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 19th International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems - Volume 3: ICEIS,},
year={2017},
pages={215-226},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0006269402150226},
isbn={978-989-758-249-3},
}


in EndNote Style

TY - CONF
JO - Proceedings of the 19th International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems - Volume 3: ICEIS,
TI - Software Ecosystems Governance - A Systematic Literature Review and Research Agenda
SN - 978-989-758-249-3
AU - Alves C.
AU - Oliveira J.
AU - Jansen S.
PY - 2017
SP - 215
EP - 226
DO - 10.5220/0006269402150226