Motivation and sorting in open source software innovation

Belenzon, Sharon and Schankerman, Mark (2008) Motivation and sorting in open source software innovation. CEP Discussion Papers (CEPDP0893). London School of Economics and Political Science. Centre for Economic Performance, London, UK.

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Abstract

This paper studies the role of intrinsic motivation, reputation, and reciprocity in driving open source software innovation. Unlike previous literature based on survey data, we exploit the observed pattern of contributions - the .revealed preference. of developers - to infer the underlying incentives driving the decision to contribute source code. Using detailed information on code contributions and project membership, we classify software developers into distinct types and study how contributions from each developer type vary according to the open source license type and other project characteristics. We find that developers strongly sort by license type, project size, and corporate sponsorship, and that reciprocity is important only for a small subset of projects. We also show that contributions have a substantial impact on the performance of open source projects.

Item Type:	Monograph (Discussion Paper)
Official URL:	http://cep.lse.ac.uk/_new/publications/series.asp?...
Additional Information:	© 2008 The Authors
Divisions:	Economics Centre for Economic Performance STICERD
Subjects:	Q Science > QA Mathematics > QA76 Computer software
JEL classification:	L - Industrial Organization > L1 - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance > L14 - Transactional Relationships; Contracts and Reputation; Networks L - Industrial Organization > L1 - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance > L17 - Open Source Products and Markets L - Industrial Organization > L4 - Antitrust Issues and Policies > L41 - Monopolization; Horizontal Anticompetitive Practices O - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth > O3 - Technological Change; Research and Development > O31 - Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives O - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth > O3 - Technological Change; Research and Development > O32 - Management of Technological Innovation and R&D
Date Deposited:	08 Aug 2013 15:23
Last Modified:	15 Sep 2023 23:14
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/51594

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