Beefing IT Up for Your Investor? Engagement with Open Source Communities, Innovation, and Startup Funding: Evidence from GitHub

• 成果类型: Article; Early Access
• 署名作者: Conti, Annamaria; Peukert, Christian; Roche, Maria
• 署名单位: IE University; University of Lausanne; Harvard University
• 刊物名称: ORGANIZATION SCIENCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1047-7039
• DOI: 10.1287/orsc.2023.18348
• 发表日期: 2024
• 关键词: Startups; KNOWLEDGE; open source communities; GitHub; Machine Learning; venture capital; INNOVATION

摘要

We study the engagement of nascent firms with open source communities and its implications for innovation and attracting funding. To do so, we link data on 160,065 U.S. startups from Crunchbase to their activities on the open source software development platform GitHub. In a matched sample of firms with and without GitHub activities, difference-in-differences models reveal a substantial increase in the likelihood of being funded after early stage startups engage with open source communities on GitHub. This relationship is weaker for firms that employ GitHub for internal development only. Startups developing novel technologies tend to benefit more from engaging with open source communities, unlike those in highly competitive environments. This heterogeneity highlights a potential trade-off between engaging with open source communities and appropriability. To provide insight regarding mechanisms, we classify startups' technology usecases on GitHub using machine learning and exploit data on product launches. Our results from these additional analyses support the notion that one important channel potentially driving our findings is the access to external knowledge for technology development provided by open source communities. Engaging with these communities may thereby aid startups in innovating and creating a (minimum) viable product.