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The governance of free/open source software projects: monolithic, multidimensional, or configurational?

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  • M. Markus

Abstract

This paper presents the results of a qualitative review and synthesis of the literature on open source governance, addressing four key questions: (1) How has open source software (OSS) governance been defined? (2) Has the phenomenon of OSS governance been conceptualized as a monolithic or multidimensional phenomenon? (3) What purposes is OSS governance hypothesized to serve? and (4) What are the dimensions of OSS governance, and how are these dimensions related to each other? The results of the review suggest a framework for future comparative and case study research on OSS governance, and they provide a basis for comparison with research on the governance of other distributed, community-based forms of content and creation. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2007

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  • M. Markus, 2007. "The governance of free/open source software projects: monolithic, multidimensional, or configurational?," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 11(2), pages 151-163, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jmgtgv:v:11:y:2007:i:2:p:151-163
    DOI: 10.1007/s10997-007-9021-x
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    2. Sladjana Nørskov & Yun Mi Antorini & Morten Berg Jensen, 2019. "Innovative Brand Community Members and Their Willingness to Share Ideas with Companies," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Alexander Brem & Joe Tidd & Tugrul Daim (ed.), Managing Innovation Understanding and Motivating Crowds, chapter 6, pages 145-169, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    3. Engelhardt, Sebastian v. & Freytag, Andreas, 2013. "Institutions, culture, and open source," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 90-110.
    4. Robert Viseur & Nicolas Jullien, 2023. "CommunesPlone, an original open-source model of resource pooling in the public sector," Post-Print hal-04107638, HAL.
    5. 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).
    6. Linus Dahlander & Lars Frederiksen & Francesco Rullani, 2008. "Online Communities and Open Innovation," Industry and Innovation, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(2), pages 115-123.
    7. Yuqing Ren & Jilin Chen & John Riedl, 2016. "The Impact and Evolution of Group Diversity in Online Open Collaboration," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 62(6), pages 1668-1686, June.
    8. Baozhou Lu & Rudy Hirschheim & Andrew Schwarz, 2015. "Examining the antecedent factors of online microsourcing," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 17(3), pages 601-617, June.
    9. Shuk Ying Ho & Arun Rai, 2017. "Continued Voluntary Participation Intention in Firm-Participating Open Source Software Projects," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 28(3), pages 603-625, September.
    10. Samer Faraj & Georg von Krogh & Eric Monteiro & Karim R. Lakhani, 2016. "Special Section Introduction—Online Community as Space for Knowledge Flows," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 27(4), pages 668-684, December.
    11. De Noni, Ivan & Ganzaroli, Andrea & Orsi, Luigi, 2013. "The evolution of OSS governance: a dimensional comparative analysis," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 29(3), pages 247-263.
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    13. Lee, Saerom & Baek, Hyunmi & Jahng, Jungjoo, 2017. "Governance strategies for open collaboration: Focusing on resource allocation in open source software development organizations," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 37(5), pages 431-437.
    14. Vivianna Fang He & Phanish Puranam & Yash Raj Shrestha & Georg von Krogh, 2020. "Resolving governance disputes in communities: A study of software license decisions," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(10), pages 1837-1868, October.
    15. Gregory D. Moody & Laurie J. Kirsch & Sandra A. Slaughter & Brian Kimball Dunn & Qin Weng, 2016. "Facilitating the Transformational: An Exploration of Control in Cyberinfrastructure Projects and the Discovery of Field Control," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 27(2), pages 324-346, June.
    16. Lerner, Jürgen & Kenis, Patrick & Raaij, Denise van & Brandes, Ulrik, 2011. "Will they stay or will they go? How network properties of WebICs predict dropout rates of valuable Wikipedians," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 29(5), pages 404-413.

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