The impact of buyback service for IT portfolio and standardization of products on SaaS adoption

SaaS (software as a service) is the product of software technology and business model innovation, the appearance of which aggravates the information asymmetry between the buyer and seller. When the buyer decide whether to adopt it, he will consider problems about the original IT assets investment protection, being lock onto by the SaaS service provider and SaaS service provider´s ability in identifying. From the dimensions of assents transfer and product standardization, SaaS service can be classified into four categories. The process of SaaS service transaction is a complete but imperfect dynamic game. The buyer and the SaaS service provider who can provide different types of services achieve equilibrium in the partial successful market by using double-price model. Research found that the SaaS service provider who provides standardized product is the buyers´ best choice. Whether to choose SaaS service providers who provider assets transfer depend on the gains of assets transfer and the loss of lock-in. Partial success market will affect the purchasing behavior of the buyer, but won´t affect his choice of SaaS service provider´s categories. This research enriches the equilibrium condition of double-price model in partial success market, and has instructive significance for the constructing of SaaS service market.