Abstract
The relationships between software producing companies, their customers
and other parties involved have growing importance in the turbulent and
fast developing business environment of today. The software industry
itself is characterized by the Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS), tailored,
and Modified-Off-The-Shelf (MOTS) businesses modes. In this versatile
context of cooperation, financing and acquisitions demand exact details of
the ownership of the products, i.e. the Intellectual Property Rights of
these products and services. Legal forms and contracting procedures are
emerging as the critical issues for the development of the information
technology industry.
This study addresses the problem of how software contracting has been
approached and what concepts and models have been presented to understand
it. Further, the question of the role of inter-organisational
relationships (business-to-business) and intra-organisational process
evolution in software contracting is discussed. The domains of interest
and of relevance in this research are software development process,
business process, legal process, and the contracting process itself, and
the evolving interaction between these processes. The focus of this study
is especially on contracting and on analysing the process of contracting,
i.e. the dynamics, dependencies and elements of process related issues.
The empirical part of the study was completed by analysing twelve software
producing companies - eight were Finnish firms established in Silicon
Valley (USA) and the rest were local Finnish firms with international
operations. Based on the empirical findings, a software-contracting model
was elaborated to describe how the contracting processes form and evolve
in the context of software business. The model gives more understanding of
the evolving contract processes and relationships. Further, the research
produced concepts of how to manage contracting processes in the software
business.
Contributions of this study are, first, the well-defined model for
contracting process in a software developing company. The elaborated model
gives new insight into the elements, interrelationships and governance
structures included in the contracting process and the relationship
development between cooperating companies. Software companies can compare
their contractual situation with the model. This enables them to develop
their own processes further to respond to the present-day requirements.
Secondly, the study specifies and introduces three different generic
contracting networks for COTS, tailored, and MOTS business modes of
software developing companies. It was established that these three
business modes have similarities as well as differences in the application
of software contracting processes. The COTS business relied firmly on
multiform licensing practices, whereas the tailored business saw the
framework contract as the main contractual tool and interestingly the MOTS
business employed combinations of these two previous forms, i.e. both
licensing and framework contracts.
This study evoked some interesting future research prospects. In order to
create a more accurate overall view of the whole contracting process the
research should be continued and take the interplay of both customer and
supplier under closer scrutiny. Another important issue would be to
examine the contracts used in these different business modes from a strict
legal viewpoint and the possible transformation of the predominant legal
practices.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:oulo.fi/oai:oulu.fi:isbn951-42-6600-5 |
| Date | 12 December 2001 |
| Creators | Warsta, J. (Juhani) |
| Publisher | University of Oulu |
| Source Sets | University of Oulu |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | info:eu-repo/semantics/doctoralThesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess, © University of Oulu, 2001 |
| Relation | info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/pissn/0355-3191, info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/eissn/1796-220X |
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