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The scope of interests of this community incoprorate the challenges and opportunities faced by individual firms and by the software industry as a whole. To the extent that they are relevant to the business interests of firms and the industry, the scope also includes relevant policy issues.
Software business can be defined both as a segment of economy and as a specialized academic discipline. As a segment of the economy, software business firms are those that base their business on software-based products or services. As an academic discipline, software business is a new, emerging area of research that studies
the special characteristics of software as an economic and social good and how those characteristics influence:
- Strategies, operations, research and development, organization, and evolution of software products, services, and software firms,
- The special challenges of software in the hands of customers and end users, including requirements and design, deployment, and operations, and
- Specific challenges and opportunities for the software industry as a whole.
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Firm level
Software business includes the models, methods, and processes in the creation, selling, and use of software, including the dependencies and connections among these elements. Software business comes in many contexts, including:
- Firms that focus on the creation and sale of software
- Firms that focus on the creation and operation of services largely or heavily dependent on software (such as internet information services)
- Firms that provide support or operations services for the benefit of software producers or consumers
- Firms in other businesses, but that have one or more business units devoted primarily to software either for internal use or in support of their customers
- Firms that are major users of software products and services, including the development of software for their internal needs
- Firms that provide professional services to the foregoing, including legal, accounting, etc
Industry level
- Individual businesses are strongly influenced by competition and complementarities among firms, and mergers and acquisitions and divestments are common.
- Groups of firms often form alliances for purposes of coordination or resource sharing, even whilst competing amongst one another.
- The industry engages in cooperative activies such as standardization or mutual planning with complementary industries such as telecommunications and consumer electronics.
- Individuals and firms participate cooperatively in open-source software development.
- Professional societies serve the individuals and firms, including professional welfare and development, standardization, and dissemination of knowledge.
Policy
Many policy issues directly impact software businesses and the software industry, including:
- Intellectual property
- Antitrust
- Privacy
- Security
- Regulation, especially of telecommunications
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