Open Source Collaboration in Digital Entrepreneurship

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Lin, Yu-Kai; Maruping, Likoebe M.
• 署名单位: University System of Georgia; Georgia State University
• 刊物名称: ORGANIZATION SCIENCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1047-7039
• DOI: 10.1287/orsc.2021.1538
• 发表日期: 2022
• 页码: 212-230
• 关键词: OPEN INNOVATION; entrepreneurship; organizing for innovation in the digitized world; digital innovation; digital entrepreneurship; open source collaboration; paradox of openness

摘要

Emerging digital technologies give rise to digital entrepreneurship and the widespread phenomenon of open source collaboration (OSC) on GitHub for entrepreneurial pursuits. Although openness is a common theme in digital entrepreneurship, it is unclear how digital startups-that is, startups that that have digital artifacts at the core of their business model for value creation and capture actually realize value from their OSC engagement. We develop a theoretical framework to explain how the engagement in OSC may affect the value of digital startups and how the effect is contingent on the stage of venture maturity (conception, commercialization, or growth) and the mode of OSC engagement (inbound or outbound). In analyses that pool 17,552 matched digital startups with monthly panel observations between 2008 and 2017, we find digital startups in the conception and commercialization stages benefit more from inbound OSC whereas the ones in the growth stage benefit more from outbound OSC. As digital startups increasingly use OSC for ideation, experimentation, and scaling, our contribution is to show whether, when, and how knowledge flows through OSC might affect the value of digital startups. We discuss implications for research on organizing for digital entrepreneurship as well as open innovation.