Study of Innovation Trend in Software Service Networks

Abstract

Service networks can be considered open innovation systems. As software vendors provide their software as a service (SaaS) and allow users to access its functions through open interfaces, innovation style has shifted from local innovation to collective innovation. This new innovation trend has led to the research on the structural and the evolutionary patterns in SaaS networks. However, prior research that mostly focuses on the static properties of network structure and position of nodes misses the dynamics of evolving network. In this thesis, the changes of network positions over time are studied through the investigation of the trend of the centralities of representative software services in SaaS networks. The results suggest that each software service follows a typical life cycle in its network position, and that the innovation trend shifts from the photo to social networking services by involving a transition of network structure. These results imply that innovation studies should consider not only static network topology and position, but also the changing pattern of position in evolving network.