How Do Firms Control Open Source Software Projects? An Analysis of Different Governance Modes
Mario Schaarschmidt, Gianfranco Walsh, Harald F. O. von Kortzfleisch · Academy of Management Proceedings · 2012
The authors discuss that software firms can apply different types of governance approaches to open-source software development projects (OSSDP), and draw on control theory to propose that firms might exert control by employing resource deployment–based control. By differentiating firm-versus community-initiated projects with one (single-vendor projects) versus many (multivendor projects) participating firms, the authors predict the amounts of control applied in different governance modes, then use data from Eclipse projects and a multimethod data analysis approach to test these predictions. In multivendor projects, firms are more likely to use resource deployment–based control than formal control mechanisms. The findings have key theoretical and managerial implications.