TY - JOUR T1 - Competitive Actions of Open Source Firms JF - Open Source Business Resource Y1 - 2007 A1 - Glen McInnis AB - Early in 2006, Microsoft CEO Steve Balmer made a public statement that Microsoft had no trouble competing with open source rivals on features. Balmer was downplaying the fact that Open Source Software (OSS) has changed the nature of competition in the software industry from one of feature-based competition to a much more complex model for competition. Traditional firms like Microsoft are not simply competing against a loose group of programmers who produce OSS; they are competing against other firms who have chosen to use OSS as part of their product or service offering. This article is an examination of competition in this new environment where firm-to-firm competition includes those firms making use of OSS. The evolution of the marketplace becomes evident when competition is viewed as a series of small, but discrete actions that are carried out by a firm. Each of these actions is intended to improve the firm's standing in the marketplace. Such actions can be classified as one of six different types of competitive action: (i) pricing, (ii) marketing, (iii) new products, (iv) capacity, (v) service, and (vi) signaling. PB - Talent First Network CY - Ottawa UR - http://timreview.ca/article/57 IS - November 2007 U1 - Carleton University Glen McInnis is the Practice Area Lead for Enterprise Content Management at non-linear creations in Ottawa, ON. Glen holds a B.Sc. in computer science and is currently completing a thesis titled "Competitive Actions of Open Source Firms" as part of the M.A.Sc. in Technology Innovation Management at Carleton University. ER -