Bridges and barriers to hardware-dependent software ecosystem participation - A case study

Background: Software ecosystems emerged as means for several actors to jointly provide more value to the market than any of them can do on its own. Recently, software ecosystems are more often used to support the development of hardware-dependent solutions. Objectives: This work aims at studying barriers and bridges to participation in an ecosystem with substantial hardware dependencies. Method: We conducted an interview-based case study of an ecosystem around Axis' network video surveillance systems, interviewing 10 internal experts and 8 external representatives of 6 companies, complemented by document studies at Axis. Results: Major bridges to the ecosystem include end customer demands, open and transparent communication and relationship, as well as internal and external standardizations. Barriers include the two-tier business model, entry barriers and execution performance issues. Approximately half of the identified bridges and barriers could be considered hardware-dependent ecosystems specific. Conclusion: Our results suggest that ecosystem leaders should share their sales channels with the ecosystem participants and focus on good communication and relationships as the dominant factors for the ecosystem participation. Moreover, we report that internal and external standardization can play a dual role, not only ease the development but also enable additional sales channels and new opportunities for the ecosystem participants. At the same time, the business model selected by the ecosystem leaders and performance, are identified as the main barriers to ecosystem participation. We believe that the business model barrier may be much more important for similar hardware-dependent software ecosystems. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.