IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/bushst/v52y2010i5p834-856.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The rise of Firefox in the web browser industry: The role of open source in setting standards

Author

Listed:
  • Ilan Oshri
  • Henk de Vries
  • Huibert de Vries

Abstract

Recent years have witnessed a continuous erosion of the Microsoft Internet Explorer share in the web browser market, mainly induced by the continuous gains of Mozilla Firefox, an open source software product. This tendency would seem to contradict the well-established belief that in a standards battle 'the strong grow stronger while the weak grow weaker'. The objective of this study is to explain the evolution of web browsers through the analysis of the competitive relationship between the main players in this ongoing battle. We examine two standards battles: first, Netscape versus Microsoft, followed by the more recent battle between Microsoft and Mozilla. The analysis contributes to the understanding of standard battles in the context of open source software. It will be argued that some characteristics of Open Source Firefox, such as the semi-open development approach and the involvement of commercial companies, partially explain the rise of this web browser. Lock-in mechanisms, which historically have been reported to be dominant factors in standards battles, seem to have little impact in the context of open source software.

Suggested Citation

  • Ilan Oshri & Henk de Vries & Huibert de Vries, 2010. "The rise of Firefox in the web browser industry: The role of open source in setting standards," Business History, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 52(5), pages 834-856.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:bushst:v:52:y:2010:i:5:p:834-856
    DOI: 10.1080/00076791.2010.499431
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00076791.2010.499431
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/00076791.2010.499431?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Windrum, Paul, 2000. "Back from the brink: Microsoft and the strategic use of standards in the Browser Wars," Research Memorandum 005, Maastricht University, Maastricht Economic Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. de Vries, H.J., 2019. "Standardisation Management," ERIM Inaugural Address Series Research in Management EIA 2019-079-LIS, Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM), ERIM is the joint research institute of the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University and the Erasmus School of Economics (ESE) at Erasmus University Rotterdam..
    2. Gianvito Lanzolla & Alessandro Giudici, 2017. "Pioneering strategies in the digital world. Insights from the Axel Springer case," Business History, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 59(5), pages 744-777, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.

      Corrections

      All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:bushst:v:52:y:2010:i:5:p:834-856. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

      If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

      If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

      If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

      For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/FBSH20 .

      Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

      IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.