A laboratory study of consumers' preferences and purchasing behavior with regards to software components

Component-based software development is widely regarded as a promising approach to improving productivity and quality. However, progress in component-based software development has been slower than expected. A possible explanation for this slow progress is that there are not enough software components that can satisfy users (consumers). From this perspective, the purpose of this paper is to increase our knowledge about consumers of software components and to understand what aspects of software components are likely to affect consumer behavior. Specifically, this paper seeks to establish links between objective features of software components and consumers' preferences and purchasing behavior.The pragmatic utility of using objective features as predictors of consumers' behavior in regard to software components can be high. Since these objective features are under the direct control of producers, by understanding the relationship between the objective features and consumer behavior, producers can more effectively develop software components adapted to consumers' needs. We conducted this research in an artificial environment using a system called SofTrade, which was built for the purpose of teaching and studying the design, production, marketing, and purchasing of software components. Our results suggest that objective features of software components can be effective predictors of consumers' preferences and purchasing behavior, and therefore may provide practical guidance to software component producers regarding how to develop more marketable software components.