Acceptance of monetary rewards in open source software development

The open source software (OSS) movement thrives on innovation and volunteer effort of developers. Scholars have expressed widespread concern about the sustainability of the OSS movement due to high levels of volunteerism. In this paper, we address a central challenge to the sustainability of OSS-developers’ acceptance of monetary rewards. We strive to explain why some OSS developers accept monetary rewards and others do not. Viewed through the theoretical lens of the private-collective innovation model (0395 and 0400), this allows us to describe when developers will accept private financial rewards. Our main research objective is to clearly map the web of relationships between causal antecedents, and developers’ acceptance behavior. Using a unique dataset that combines survey and behavioral measures, we find that – (a) intention to accept monetary rewards mediates the impact of motivational elements on developers’ acceptance of monetary rewards; (b) intrinsic and extrinsic motivations positively affect their intention to accept monetary rewards, community motivation negatively impacts intention and ideological motivation does not affect the intention to accept rewards and (c) these effects are obtained even after inclusion of several control variables. The theoretical and managerial implications of our work are described.     

Governance strategies for open collaboration: Focusing on resource allocation in open source software development organizations

With rapid advancements in information and communication technology, open collaboration has become easier, thereby allowing people to participate through internet platform. Open source software is one of the representative examples of open collaboration. In this research, we examine the antecedents of innovation performance for open source software development organizations on Github (www.github.com), which is a leading web service for the open collaborations of developers. From the perspective of resource allocation, this study investigates effective governance strategies to allocate developers to multiple projects within an organization. Overall, we find that the organization with high performance have a small number of developers to participate in most projects and most developers to participate in a small number of projects.     

Relationships between open source software companies and communities: Observations from Nordic firms

This paper deals with the relationships between firms and communities in open source software (OSS). A particular feature of OSS is that important resources are not directly controlled by firms, but partly reside within communities that co-exist with the firms. Despite this, firms explicitly try to utilize the resources within these communities in order to create and appropriate value. Consequently, the relationships that firms have to these communities influence their way of doing business. Based on case studies of Nordic OSS firms, a typology consisting of symbiotic, commensalistic, and parasitic approaches to handle the firm-community relationship is developed. Depending on the chosen approach, firms encounter different managerial issues and also use different operational means of subtle control. While firms relying on a symbiotic approach have greater possibility to influence the community through subtle means of control, they are also confronted with more challenging managerial issues.     

Open source in the firm: Opening up professional practices of software development

Opening up firms to open source has changed professional programmers’ work in software development. In their work practice they must cope with two modes of software production: one based on proprietary, closed work situations, the other built around open source community ways of cooperation and knowledge sharing. In this article we present a study of how programmers cope with the co-existence of an industrial/commercial and a community/commons based mode of production. We analyze how they develop strategies to handle tensions that arise from contradictions between these two modes, and how it changes programmers’ approach towards open source software development in the company. The study covers proprietary companies that have gradually incorporated open source software (hybrid companies) and SMEs entirely built around open source business concepts (pure-play companies). Four strategies are elaborated and discussed in-depth: Engineering in the lab, Market driven tailoring, Developing the community consortium and Peer-production. At a more general level, the study contributes to our understanding of how the transformation of proprietary production processes into a more open mode of knowledge work is not only associated with company strategies, but also with tensions and new demands on how work is strategically handled by knowledge workers.     

From closed to open: Job role changes,individual predispositions,and the adoption of commercial open source software development

When trying to attain the benefits of open source software (OSS), proprietary closed source software (PCSS) firms are struggling to adopt this radically different practice of software development. We approach these adoption challenges as a problem of gaining support for organizational innovation. Through a mixed-method research design consisting of qualitative interviews and a survey of employees of a large telecommunications firm, we find that the organizational innovation to commercially engage in OSS has different impacts on technical and administrative dimensions of different job roles. Accordingly, individuals enacting different job roles are—on average—more or less well aligned with the OSS practice and OSS processes per se. We find that individual-level attributes can counterbalance the job role changes that weaken support for adopting OSS, while perceived organizational commitment has no effect. Suggestions for PCSS firms are presented and implications for innovation literature are discussed.     

Monetary donations to an open source software platform

Online open source software platforms, such as Sourceforge.net, play a vital role in creating an ecosystem that enables the creation and growth of open source projects. However, there is little research exploring the interactions between open source stakeholders and the platform. We believe that the sustainability of the platform crucially depends on financial incentives. While platforms can obtain these incentives through multiple means, in this paper we focus on one form of financial incentives—voluntary monetary donations by open source community members. We report findings from two empirical studies that examine factors that impact donations. Study 1 investigates the factors that cause some community members to donate and not others. We find that the decision to donate is impacted by relational commitment with open source software platform, donation to projects and accepting donations from others. Study 2 examines what drives the level of donation. We find that the length of association with the platform and relational commitment affects donation levels.     

How open source software works: “free” user-to-user assistance

Research into free and open source software development projects has so far largely focused on how the major tasks of software development are organized and motivated. But a complete project requires the execution of “mundane but necessary” tasks as well. In this paper, we explore how the mundane but necessary task of field support is organized in the case of Apache web server software, and why some project participants are motivated to provide this service gratis to others. We find that the Apache field support system functions effectively. We also find that, when we partition the help system into its component tasks, 98% of the effort expended by information providers in fact returns direct learning benefits to those providers. This finding considerably reduces the puzzle of why information providers are willing to perform this task “for free.” Implications are discussed.     

From closed source to open source software: Analysis of the migration process to Open Office

This article seeks to analyse the migration trajectory from commercial off-the-shelf and closed source software to open source software in order to establish the critical success/resistance factors associated with the replacement of the extant Microsoft Office with Open Office software in a private Brazilian company. The bibliographical review of this work addresses adoption/resistance to information systems, which is the theoretical framework adopted to explain the data collected. The single case study method was then applied and data was collected via documentation analysis, interviews, questionnaires, and direct and participant observation. Data analysis was then conducted by means of content analysis and non-parametric statistics. Based on that, three types of user behaviour were identified with respect to the intention to use open source software, namely adopters, partial adopters, and non-adopters. Finally, the reasons for such behaviour were set forth and discussed in order to make the implications of the study clear.     

A system architecture based on open source enterprise content management systems for supporting educational institutions

As academic institutions produce large amounts of information in their teaching/research and administrative activities and this information should flow smoothly between departments, there appears the need to organize and manage this information thoroughly. In order to avoid information overlapping, this should happen considering the other internal existing systems. Nevertheless, because not all institutions afford to spend a lot on various systems, open source software is an appropriate solution for both educational and administrative services. Our aim is to prove the utility of Enterprise Content Management (ECM) in context of academic organizations. The first part makes an introduction to the concepts of ECM and open source software, as means to enhance process management. The second part regards the components of ECM systems and makes an analysis of their potential use in academic institutions. A system architecture based on ECM, by means of which ECM is usefully connected to other systems operating in educational establishments is proposed. A case study, discussing the implementation of an open source ECM in a large Romanian university, showing its efficacy and focusing on features related to document workflow, is analyzed.     

From planning to mature: On the success of open source projects

Open source is an example of user-centric innovation initiated by an individual or group of users to satisfy their specific needs; the more a software evolves towards a stable release able to address the requirements of its developers, the more successful the project. In this paper we use a large data-set obtained from SourceForge.net to estimate the relationship between a series of different characteristics of OS projects and the probability of evolution of the source code from a preliminary release to a mature version. We show that while projects distributed under highly restrictive licensing terms (GPL) have a significantly smaller probability of reaching a stable release, applications towards sophisticated users have a larger probability of evolving in the development status. Interestingly, we find that the size of the “community of developers” increases the chances of progress but this effect decreases as the community gets larger, a signal of possible coordination problems.     

Open source software development—Just another case of collective invention?

Do open source software (OSS) projects represent a new innovation model? Under what conditions can it be employed in other contexts? “Collective invention” regimes usually ended when a dominant design emerged. This is not the case with OSS. Firstly, the OSS community developed the institutional innovation of OSS licenses enabling OSS software to survive as a common property. Secondly, these licenses are mainly enforced by pro-socially motivated contributors. We characterize the conditions under which OSS communities develop and sustain pro-social commitments. We point out the vulnerability of these conditions to developments in patent legislation.     

A data science and open source software approach to analytics for strategic sourcing

Data science has emerged as a significant capability upon which firms compete. Although many data scientists and the high-performing companies that employ them seem to have developed robust methods to employ data sciences practices to achieve competitive advantages, there have been few attempts at defining and explaining how and why data science helps firms to achieve desired outcomes. In this paper, we describe how data science, which combines computer programming, domain knowledge, and analytic skillsets to scientifically extract insights from data, can be used to help meet the growing demand of analytic needs across an organization’s value chain. This is done through the illustration of an applied data science initiative to a strategic sourcing problem via the use of open-source technology. In doing so, we contribute to the growing data science literature by demonstrating the application of unique data science capabilities. Moreover, the paper provides a tutorial on how to use a specific R package along with an actual case in which that package use used.     

交互记忆系统对知识分享的影响机制研究——基于开源软件团队的检验

从交互记忆系统角度,研究了开源软件团队内部知识区别、知识位置、知识信任、沟通质量和知识分享之间的影响机制。通过问卷调查156位团队成员,验证了知识位置和知识信任对沟通质量有积极促进的作用;沟通质量正向影响知识分享;沟通质量完全中介知识位置和知识信任对知识分享的影响。上述结果弥补了现有研究中的一些空白并对开源软件团队的管理实践具有指导意义。     

Ascending into order: A reflective analysis from a small open source development team

Open Source Software (OSS) has had a profound impact on the way in which software is developed and consequently on the perception of software development. This paper starts with a brief discussion of the eclectic techniques and processes, combinations of which may be used for OSS projects. A ‘real-world’ context will be examined using ‘Reflective Analysis’ focusing on the research and development team present within the Business, Logistics and Information Systems (BLIS) department at The University of Bolton. The reflective analysis explores some assumptions inherent in OSS development. Drawing on findings from experience, industry and background research, an attempt will be made to provide an insight into how in a small team, the use of OSS and associated techniques can lead to the successful development of software. Whilst early results show that smaller OSS projects may appear to have little or no formal structure with closer investigation it is clear this is not the case. Without at least some degree of management, the teams experience indicates that such projects may be prone to failure.     

How open is open enough?: Melding proprietary and open source platform strategies

Computer platforms provide an integrated architecture of hardware and software standards as a basis for developing complementary assets. The most successful platforms were owned by proprietary sponsors that controlled platform evolution and appropriated associated rewards.Responding to the Internet and open source systems, three traditional vendors of proprietary platforms experimented with hybrid strategies which attempted to combine the advantages of open source software while retaining control and differentiation. Such hybrid standards strategies reflect the competing imperatives for adoption and appropriability, and suggest the conditions under which such strategies may be preferable to either the purely open or purely proprietary alternatives.     

A systematic examination of knowledge loss in open source software projects

Context Open Source Software (OSS) development is a knowledge focused activity which relies heavily on contributors who can be volunteers or paid workers and are geographically distributed. While working on OSS projects contributors acquire project related individualistic knowledge and gain experience and skills, which often remains unshared with others and is usually lost once contributors leave a project. All software development organisations face the problem of knowledge loss as employees leave, but this situation is exasperated in OSS projects where most contributors are volunteers with largely unpredictable engagement durations. Contributor turnover is inevitable due to the transient nature of OSS project workforces causing knowledge loss, which threatens the overall sustainability of OSS projects and impacts negatively on software quality and contributor productivity.ObjectiveThe objective of this work is to deeply and systematically investigate the phenomenon of knowledge loss due to contributor turnover in OSS projects as presented in the state-of-the-art literature and to synthesise the information presented on the topic. Furthermore, based on the learning arising from our investigation it is our intention to identify mechanisms to reduce the overall effects of knowledge loss in OSS projects.MethodologyWe use the snowballing methodology to identify the relevant literature on knowledge loss due to contributor turnover in OSS projects. This robust methodology for a literature review includes research question, search strategy, inclusion, exclusion, quality criteria, and data synthesis. The search strategy, and inclusion, exclusions and quality criteria are applied as a part of snowballing procedure.Snowballing is considered an efficient and reliable way to conduct a systematic literature review, providing a robust alternative to mechanically searching individual databases for given topics.ResultKnowledge sharing in OSS projects is abundant but there is no evidence of a formal strategy or practice to manage knowledge. Due to the dynamic and diverse nature of OSS projects, knowledge management is considered a challenging task and there is a need for a proactive mechanism to share knowledge in the OSS community for knowledge to be reused in the future by the OSS project contributors. From the collection of papers found using snowballing, we consolidated various themes on knowledge loss due to contributor turnover in OSS projects and identified 11 impacts due to knowledge loss in OSS projects, and 10 mitigations to manage with knowledge loss in OSS projects.ConclusionIn this paper, we propose future research directions to investigate integration of proactive knowledge retention practices with the existing OSS practices to reduce the current knowledge loss problem. We suggest that there is insufficient attention paid to KM in general in OSS, in particular there would appear to an absence of proactive measures to reduce the potential impact of knowledge loss. We also propose the need for a KM evaluation metric in OSS projects, similar to the ones that evaluate health of online communities, which should help to inform potential consumers of the OSS of the KM status on a project, something that is not existent today.     

Open innovation and within-industry diversification in small and medium enterprises: The case of open source software firms

This paper examines the within-industry diversification of software small and medium enterprises that collaborate with the open source software community (OSS SMEs). In doing so, it offers new insights into the association between open innovation and diversification. We rely on arguments inspired by the literature and evidence collected through interviews with OSS SMEs’ top managers to investigate factors that favor or hinder within-industry diversification. First, in line with the mainstream diversification literature, we focus attention on the role of firm size. Second, in the spirit of the open innovation research, we concentrate on the mechanisms that OSS SMEs put in place to get access to the external resources of the OSS community. Econometric evidence on 100 European OSS SMEs shows that firm size is negatively associated to within-industry diversification, while OSS SMEs that have contributed to a larger number of OSS projects have a more diversified portfolio of software products. Furthermore, we provide preliminary evidence that the practice of authorizing firm programmers to contribute autonomously to OSS projects of their own choice during working hours may be positively associated to within-industry diversification only if OSS SMEs possess adequate internal technological resources.     

开源对软件厂商创新模式选择和R&D投入的影响

通过开放源代码,软件厂商可以借助外部创新力量提升产品质量,但开源同时也会导致部分用户的流失。本文通过构建两阶段的经济学模型,比较两种创新模式的均衡结果,得到了软件厂商的创新模式选择和相应的R&D投入策略。研究发现：（1）若软件厂商对开源社区内开发者贡献的代码资源的吸收能力更强,那么当社区开发者贡献水平较高或者软件厂商R&D成本较低时,其最优选择为开源模式,否则为闭源模式;相反,若开源社区的吸收能力更强,则只有当软件厂商R&D成本较低时才应选择开源模式,否则应选择闭源模式;（2）开源后虽然可以获得外部创新力量,但软件厂商为了维持产品的质量优势,必须增加其R&D投入。本文对软件厂商的决策和相关政策的制定具有指导意义。     

Satisfying heterogeneous user needs via innovation toolkits: the case of Apache security software

Manufacturers customarily provide only a few product variants to address the average needs of users in the major segments of markets they serve. When user needs are highly heterogeneous, this approach leaves many seriously dissatisfied. One solution is to enable users to modify products on their own using “innovation toolkits.” We explore the effectiveness of this solution in an empirical study of Apache security software. We find high heterogeneity of need in that field, and also find that users modifying their own software to be significantly more satisfied than non-innovating users. We propose that the “user toolkits” solution will be useful in many markets characterized by heterogeneous demand.