IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/jinfst/v72y2021i2p204-223.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Loosen control without losing control: Formalization and decentralization within commons‐based peer production

Author

Listed:
  • David Rozas
  • Steven Huckle

Abstract

This study considers commons‐based peer production (CBPP) by examining the organizational processes of the free/libre open‐source software community, Drupal. It does so by exploring the sociotechnical systems that have emerged around both Drupal's development and its face‐to‐face communitarian events. There has been criticism of the simplistic nature of previous research into free software; this study addresses this by linking studies of CBPP with a qualitative study of Drupal's organizational processes. It focuses on the evolution of organizational structures, identifying the intertwined dynamics of formalization and decentralization, resulting in coexisting sociotechnical systems that vary in their degrees of organicity.

Suggested Citation

  • David Rozas & Steven Huckle, 2021. "Loosen control without losing control: Formalization and decentralization within commons‐based peer production," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 72(2), pages 204-223, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jinfst:v:72:y:2021:i:2:p:204-223
    DOI: 10.1002/asi.24393
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.24393
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/asi.24393?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jan J. J. Groen & Menno Middeldorp, 2013. "Creating a History of U.S. Inflation Expectations," Liberty Street Economics 20130821, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
    2. Alina Beattrice Vladu & Barcelona Spain & Dan Dacian Cuzdriorean, 2013. "Creative Accounting, Measurement And Behavior," Annales Universitatis Apulensis Series Oeconomica, Faculty of Sciences, "1 Decembrie 1918" University, Alba Iulia, vol. 1(15), pages 1-9.
    3. Mateos-Garcia, Juan & Steinmueller, W. Edward, 2008. "The institutions of open source software: Examining the Debian community," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 20(4), pages 333-344, December.
    4. James A. F. Stoner, 2013. "Creating a Spiritually Friendly Company," Springer Books, in: Judi Neal (ed.), Handbook of Faith and Spirituality in the Workplace, edition 127, chapter 0, pages 491-517, Springer.
    5. B. Demil & X. Lecocq, 2006. "Neither Market nor Hierarchy nor Network: The Emergence of Bazaar Governance," Post-Print hal-00185026, HAL.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. David Rozas & Antonio Tenorio-Fornés & Silvia Díaz-Molina & Samer Hassan, 2021. "When Ostrom Meets Blockchain: Exploring the Potentials of Blockchain for Commons Governance," SAGE Open, , vol. 11(1), pages 21582440211, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Engelhardt, Sebastian v. & Freytag, Andreas, 2013. "Institutions, culture, and open source," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 90-110.
    2. Feuerstein Patrick & Hanekop Heidemarie, 2017. "Koordination überbetrieblicher Wissensproduktion: Zum Spannungsverhältnis zwischen Unternehmen und Communities in Open-Source-Projekten mit Unternehmensbeteiligung," Arbeit, De Gruyter, vol. 26(1), pages 111-136, April.
    3. van den Broek, Tijs & van Veenstra, Anne Fleur, 2018. "Governance of big data collaborations: How to balance regulatory compliance and disruptive innovation," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 330-338.
    4. Natalya Yu. VLASOVA & Elena L. MOLOKOVA, 2019. "Mechanisms for coordinating stakeholders of the higher education market: Theoretical approaches to identification," Upravlenets, Ural State University of Economics, vol. 10(2), pages 21-30, May.
    5. Lingyan Meng & Md Qamruzzaman & Anass Hamad Elneel Adow, 2021. "Technological Adaption and Open Innovation in SMEs: An Strategic Assessment for Women-Owned SMEs Sustainability in Bangladesh," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-22, March.
    6. Michiel Bijlsma & Paul de Bijl & Viktoria Kocsis, 2009. "Concurrentie, innovatie en intellectuele eigendomsrechten in software markten," CPB Document 181, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    7. Bjorn Remneland Wikhamn & Alexander Styhre, 2019. "Open Innovation Groundwork," International Journal of Innovation Management (ijim), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 24(02), pages 1-29, January.
    8. Carr, Olivia G. & Jilani-Hyler, Nadia & Murray, Gregg R., 2022. "Identifying factors related to school closures due to COVID-19 in the Middle East and North Africa region," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    9. Marina V. Evseeva, 2020. "Comparative effectiveness of high-tech and medium-tech business models: Key indicators and value sustainability," Upravlenets, Ural State University of Economics, vol. 11(3), pages 59-71, July.
    10. Jolink, Albert & Niesten, Eva, 2012. "Recent qualitative advances on hybrid organizations: Taking stock, looking ahead," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 28(2), pages 149-161.
    11. Amel Charleux & Anne Mione, 2018. "Open source editing business models; the case of software [Les business models de l’édition open source ; Le cas des logiciels]," Post-Print hal-01988127, HAL.
    12. Dejean, Sylvain & Jullien, Nicolas, 2015. "Big from the beginning: Assessing online contributors’ behavior by their first contribution," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(6), pages 1226-1239.
    13. Becker, Markus C. & Rullani, Francesco & Zirpoli, Francesco, 2021. "The role of digital artefacts in early stages of distributed innovation processes," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(10).
    14. Clement Bert-Erboul & Nicholas S. Vonortas, 2018. "Personal And Social Proximity: Shaping Leadership In A Free Software Project," HSE Working papers WP BRP 84/STI/2018, National Research University Higher School of Economics.
    15. Suder, Gabriele & Liesch, Peter W. & Inomata, Satoshi & Mihailova, Irina & Meng, Bo, 2015. "The evolving geography of production hubs and regional value chains across East Asia: Trade in value-added," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 50(3), pages 404-416.
    16. Teppo Felin & Bruno S. Frey & Roger Lüthi & Margit Osterloh, 2012. "Community Enterprises—An Institutional Innovation," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(5-6), pages 427-439, July.
    17. Michiel Bijlsma & Jan Boone & Gijsbert Zwart, 2014. "Competition leverage: how the demand side affects optimal risk adjustment," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 45(4), pages 792-815, December.
    18. Miko³aj Rogiñski, 2011. "Institutionalization of Wikipedia - almost like hippies (Instytucjonalizacja Wikipedii - prawie jak hipisi)," Problemy Zarzadzania, University of Warsaw, Faculty of Management, vol. 9(32), pages 193-204.
    19. Sadowski, Bert M. & Sadowski-Rasters, Gaby & Duysters, Geert, 2008. "Transition of governance in a mature open software source community: Evidence from the Debian case," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 20(4), pages 323-332, December.
    20. Störmer, Niclas & Herstatt, Cornelius, 2014. "Exogenous vs. endogenous governance in innovation communities: Effects on motivation, conflict and justice - An experimental investigation," Working Papers 82, Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH), Institute for Technology and Innovation Management.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:jinfst:v:72:y:2021:i:2:p:204-223. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.asis.org .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.