IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hig/wpaper/84sti2018.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Personal And Social Proximity: Shaping Leadership In A Free Software Project

Author

Listed:
  • Clement Bert-Erboul

    (University of Campinas)

  • Nicholas S. Vonortas

    (National Research University Higher School of Economics)

Abstract

Open software projects are usually portrayed by focusing on charismatic leaders, friendly communities, and meritocratic language. We dig under the surface of this stereotypical picture and analyse the social relationships of the people involved; specifically, whether they are related through personal proximity or they are distant social partners. We contribute to the literature on free/open source innovation in three ways. First, we highlight the continuum of roles played by individual leaders in the open source project, as brokers and/or initiators. Second, we delve deeper in the social networks of the Videolan software community to layout where and how leaders are organised in groups and play the role of brokers and initiators. We study leadership emergence over time by taking into account the context of activities. Finally, we produce a typology of three Videolan communities with specific social networks that evolved over time in terms of leaders and social structure

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:hig:wpaper:84sti2018
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://wp.hse.ru/data/2018/09/18/1153662683/84STI2018.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Heidi Wiig Aslesen & Mark Freel, 2012. "Industrial Knowledge Bases as Drivers of Open Innovation?," Industry and Innovation, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(7), pages 563-584, October.
    2. 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.
    3. Lee Fleming & David M. Waguespack, 2007. "Brokerage, Boundary Spanning, and Leadership in Open Innovation Communities," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 18(2), pages 165-180, April.
    4. Claudia Keser & Frans Van Winden, 2000. "Conditional Cooperation and Voluntary Contributions to Public Goods," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 102(1), pages 23-39, March.
    5. Bitzer, Jurgen & Schrettl, Wolfram & Schroder, Philipp J.H., 2007. "Intrinsic motivation in open source software development," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(1), pages 160-169, March.
    6. Samer Faraj & Sirkka L. Jarvenpaa & Ann Majchrzak, 2011. "Knowledge Collaboration in Online Communities," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 22(5), pages 1224-1239, October.
    7. 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.
    8. Giuri, Paola & Rullani, Francesco & Torrisi, Salvatore, 2008. "Explaining leadership in virtual teams: The case of open source software," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 20(4), pages 305-315, December.
    9. Linus Dahlander & Siobhan O'Mahony, 2011. "Progressing to the Center: Coordinating Project Work," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 22(4), pages 961-979, August.
    10. Linus Dahlander & Lars Frederiksen & Francesco Rullani, 2008. "Online Communities and Open Innovation," Industry and Innovation, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(2), pages 115-123.
    11. François Horn & Didier Demazière & Marc Zune, 2007. "The functioning of a free software community : entanglement of three regulation modes --control, autonomous, and distributed," Post-Print halshs-00278799, HAL.
    12. Dilan Aksoy-Yurdagul, 2015. "The Impact of Open Source Software Commercialization on Firm Value," Industry and Innovation, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(1), pages 1-17, January.
    13. Joel West & Siobhan O'mahony, 2008. "The Role of Participation Architecture in Growing Sponsored Open Source Communities," Industry and Innovation, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(2), pages 145-168.
    14. Leslie Gadman & Cary Cooper, 2009. "Open Source Leadership," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-0-230-23680-6, December.
    15. Ron Boschma, 2005. "Proximity and Innovation: A Critical Assessment," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(1), pages 61-74.
    16. Leslie Gadman & Cary Cooper, 2009. "Open Source Leadership," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Open Source Leadership, chapter 0, pages 40-58, Palgrave Macmillan.
    17. Lakhani, Karim R. & von Hippel, Eric, 2003. "How open source software works: "free" user-to-user assistance," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(6), pages 923-943, June.
    18. Steven L. Johnson & Hani Safadi & Samer Faraj, 2015. "The Emergence of Online Community Leadership," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 26(1), pages 165-187, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. 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).
    3. Smirnova, Inna & Reitzig, Markus & Alexy, Oliver, 2022. "What makes the right OSS contributor tick? Treatments to motivate high-skilled developers," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(1).
    4. 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.
    5. Nicolai j. Foss & Lars Frederiksen & Francesco Rullani, 2016. "Problem‐formulation and problem‐solving in self‐organized communities: How modes of communication shape project behaviors in the free open‐source software community," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(13), pages 2589-2610, December.
    6. Julia Bauer & Nikolaus Franke & Philipp Tuertscher, 2016. "Intellectual Property Norms in Online Communities: How User-Organized Intellectual Property Regulation Supports Innovation," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 27(4), pages 724-750, December.
    7. Sebastian Spaeth & Georg von Krogh & Fang He, 2015. "Research Note —Perceived Firm Attributes and Intrinsic Motivation in Sponsored Open Source Software Projects," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 26(1), pages 224-237, March.
    8. 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.
    9. 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.
    10. Sheen S. Levine & Michael J. Prietula, 2014. "Open Collaboration for Innovation: Principles and Performance," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 25(5), pages 1414-1433, October.
    11. Adrián Kovács & Bart Looy & Bruno Cassiman, 2015. "Exploring the scope of open innovation: a bibliometric review of a decade of research," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 104(3), pages 951-983, September.
    12. Wonseok Oh & Jae Yun Moon & Jungpil Hahn & Taekyung Kim, 2016. "Research Note—Leader Influence on Sustained Participation in Online Collaborative Work Communities: A Simulation-Based Approach," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 27(2), pages 383-402, June.
    13. Siobhan O'Mahony & Rebecca Karp, 2022. "From proprietary to collective governance: How do platform participation strategies evolve?," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(3), pages 530-562, March.
    14. Liu, Jialing & Wei, Jiang & Liu, Yang & Jin, Duo, 2022. "How to channel knowledge coproduction behavior in an online community: Combining machine learning and narrative analysis," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 183(C).
    15. 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.
    16. Knut Blind & Torben Schubert, 2024. "Estimating the GDP effect of Open Source Software and its complementarities with R&D and patents: evidence and policy implications," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 49(2), pages 466-491, April.
    17. Linus Dahlander & Lars Frederiksen, 2012. "The Core and Cosmopolitans: A Relational View of Innovation in User Communities," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 23(4), pages 988-1007, August.
    18. Aljona Zorina & William H. Dutton, 2021. "Theorizing Actor Interactions Shaping Innovation in Digital Infrastructures: The Case of Residential Internet Development in Belarus," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 32(1), pages 156-180, January.
    19. Michael Barrett & Eivor Oborn & Wanda Orlikowski, 2016. "Creating Value in Online Communities: The Sociomaterial Configuring of Strategy, Platform, and Stakeholder Engagement," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 27(4), pages 704-723, December.
    20. Karim R. Lakhani & Hila Lifshitz-Assaf & Michael L. Tushman, 2013. "Open innovation and organizational boundaries: task decomposition, knowledge distribution and the locus of innovation," Chapters, in: Anna Grandori (ed.), Handbook of Economic Organization, chapter 19, Edward Elgar Publishing.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Open source; community; leadership; social network; proximity; computer software;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D90 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - General
    • L86 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Information and Internet Services; Computer Software

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:hig:wpaper:84sti2018. 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: Shamil Abdulaev or Shamil Abdulaev (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/hsecoru.html .

    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.