IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/stusoi/201703.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Open source projects as incubators of innovation: From niche phenomenon to integral part of the software industry

Author

Listed:
  • Schrape, Jan-Felix

Abstract

Over the last 20 years, open source development has become an integral part of the software industry and a key component of the innovation strategies of all major IT providers. Against this backdrop, this paper seeks to develop a systematic overview of open source communities and their socio-economic contexts. I begin with a reconstruction of the genesis of open source software projects and their changing relationships to established IT companies. This is followed by the identification of four ideal- typical variants of current open source projects that differ significantly in their modes of coordination and the degree of corporate involvement. Further, I examine why open source projects have mainly lost their subversive potential while, in contrast to former cases of collective invention, remaining viable beyond the emergence of predominant solutions and their commercial exploitation: In an industry that is characterized by very short innovation cycles, open source projects have proven to be important incubators for new product lines and branch-defining infrastructures. They do not compete against classical forms of production but instead complement and expand these.

Suggested Citation

  • Schrape, Jan-Felix, 2017. "Open source projects as incubators of innovation: From niche phenomenon to integral part of the software industry," Research Contributions to Organizational Sociology and Innovation Studies, SOI Discussion Papers 2017-03, University of Stuttgart, Institute for Social Sciences, Department of Organizational Sociology and Innovation Studies.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:stusoi:201703
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/158016/1/887972918.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Josh Lerner, 2005. "The Scope of Open Source Licensing," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 21(1), pages 20-56, April.
    2. Greenstein, Shane & Nagle, Frank, 2014. "Digital dark matter and the economic contribution of Apache," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(4), pages 623-631.
    3. Dolata, Ulrich & Schrape, Jan Felix, 2014. "Masses, crowds, communities, movements: Collective formations in the digital age," Research Contributions to Organizational Sociology and Innovation Studies, SOI Discussion Papers 2014-02, University of Stuttgart, Institute for Social Sciences, Department of Organizational Sociology and Innovation Studies.
    4. Josh Lerner & Jean Tirole, 2002. "Some Simple Economics of Open Source," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(2), pages 197-234, June.
    5. Rajagopal, 2014. "The Human Factors," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Architecting Enterprise, chapter 9, pages 225-249, Palgrave Macmillan.
    6. Neukirch, Mario, 2014. "Konflikte um den Ausbau der Stromnetze: Status und Entwicklung heterogener Protestkonstellationen," Research Contributions to Organizational Sociology and Innovation Studies, SOI Discussion Papers 2014-01, University of Stuttgart, Institute for Social Sciences, Department of Organizational Sociology and Innovation Studies.
    7. Weber, Steven, 2000. "The Political Economy of Open Source Software," UCAIS Berkeley Roundtable on the International Economy, Working Paper Series qt3hq916dc, UCAIS Berkeley Roundtable on the International Economy, UC Berkeley.
    8. Schrape, Jan-Felix, 2016. "Open-Source-Projekte: vom Nischenphänomen zum integralen Bestandteil der Softwareindustrie," WSI-Mitteilungen, Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, vol. 69(8), pages 603-612.
    9. Kenneth Arrow, 1962. "Economic Welfare and the Allocation of Resources for Invention," NBER Chapters, in: The Rate and Direction of Inventive Activity: Economic and Social Factors, pages 609-626, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Radig, Ann-Kathrin, 2015. "Der Wandel des deutschen Videoverleihmarktes durch Digitalisierung und Internet," Research Contributions to Organizational Sociology and Innovation Studies, SOI Discussion Papers 2015-01, University of Stuttgart, Institute for Social Sciences, Department of Organizational Sociology and Innovation Studies.
    11. Rikard Larsson & Lars Bengtsson & Kristina Henriksson & Judith Sparks, 1998. "The Interorganizational Learning Dilemma: Collective Knowledge Development in Strategic Alliances," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 9(3), pages 285-305, June.
    12. Bronwyn H. Hall & Nathan Rosenberg (ed.), 2010. "Handbook of the Economics of Innovation," Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, Elsevier, edition 1, volume 1, number 1.
    13. Lerner, Josh, 2013. "The Comingled Code: Open Source and Economic Development," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262518567, December.
    14. Dolata, Ulrich, 2011. "Wandel durch Technik: Eine Theorie soziotechnischer Transformation," Schriften aus dem Max-Planck-Institut für Gesellschaftsforschung Köln, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, volume 73, number 73.
    15. Dolata, Ulrich, 2017. "Social movements and the Internet: The sociotechnical constitution of collective action," Research Contributions to Organizational Sociology and Innovation Studies, SOI Discussion Papers 2017-02, University of Stuttgart, Institute for Social Sciences, Department of Organizational Sociology and Innovation Studies.
    16. Allen, Robert C., 1983. "Collective invention," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 4(1), pages 1-24, March.
    17. Schrape, Jan-Felix, 2015. "Open Source Softwareprojekte zwischen Passion und Kalkül," Research Contributions to Organizational Sociology and Innovation Studies, SOI Discussion Papers 2015-02, University of Stuttgart, Institute for Social Sciences, Department of Organizational Sociology and Innovation Studies.
    18. Dolata, Ulrich & Schrape, Jan-Felix, 2013. "Zwischen Individuum und Organisation: Neue kollektive Akteure und Handlungskonstellationen im Internet," Research Contributions to Organizational Sociology and Innovation Studies, SOI Discussion Papers 2013-02, University of Stuttgart, Institute for Social Sciences, Department of Organizational Sociology and Innovation Studies.
    19. Werle, Raymund, 2011. "Institutional analysis of technical innovation: A review," Research Contributions to Organizational Sociology and Innovation Studies, SOI Discussion Papers 2011-04, University of Stuttgart, Institute for Social Sciences, Department of Organizational Sociology and Innovation Studies.
    20. Peter B. Meyer, 2003. "Episodes of Collective Invention," Working Papers 368, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
    21. Alessandro Nuvolari, 2004. "Collective invention during the British Industrial Revolution: the case of the Cornish pumping engine," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 28(3), pages 347-363, May.
    22. Jennifer W. Spencer, 2003. "Firms' knowledge‐sharing strategies in the global innovation system: empirical evidence from the flat panel display industry," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(3), pages 217-233, March.
    23. Lamoreaux, Naomi R. & Sokoloff, Kenneth L., 2000. "The Geography of Invention in the American Glass Industry, 1870–1925," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 60(3), pages 700-729, September.
    24. Dolata, Ulrich, 2011. "Radical change as gradual transformation: Characteristics and variants of socio-technical transitions," Research Contributions to Organizational Sociology and Innovation Studies, SOI Discussion Papers 2011-03, University of Stuttgart, Institute for Social Sciences, Department of Organizational Sociology and Innovation Studies.
    25. Lerner, Josh, 2012. "The Architecture of Innovation: The Economics of Creative Organizations," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199639892.
    26. Henkel, Joachim & Schöberl, Simone & Alexy, Oliver, 2014. "The emergence of openness: How and why firms adopt selective revealing in open innovation," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(5), pages 879-890.
    27. Schrape, Jan-Felix, 2016. "Social media, mass media and the 'public sphere': Differentiation, complementarity and co-existence," Research Contributions to Organizational Sociology and Innovation Studies, SOI Discussion Papers 2016-01, University of Stuttgart, Institute for Social Sciences, Department of Organizational Sociology and Innovation Studies.
    28. Schrape, Jan-Felix, 2011. "Der Wandel des Buchhandels durch Digitalisierung und Internet," Research Contributions to Organizational Sociology and Innovation Studies, SOI Discussion Papers 2011-01, University of Stuttgart, Institute for Social Sciences, Department of Organizational Sociology and Innovation Studies.
    29. Powell, Walter W. & Giannella, Eric, 2010. "Collective Invention and Inventor Networks," Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, in: Bronwyn H. Hall & Nathan Rosenberg (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 0, pages 575-605, Elsevier.
    30. Ahrne, Göran & Brunsson, Nils & Seidl, David, 2016. "Resurrecting organization by going beyond organizations," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 34(2), pages 93-101.
    31. Osterloh, Margit & Rota, Sandra, 2007. "Open source software development--Just another case of collective invention?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 157-171, March.
    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. Schrape, Jan-Felix, 2019. "Technology and the promise of decentralization: Origins, development, patterns of arguments," Research Contributions to Organizational Sociology and Innovation Studies, SOI Discussion Papers 2019-01, University of Stuttgart, Institute for Social Sciences, Department of Organizational Sociology and Innovation Studies.
    2. Dolata, Ulrich, 2017. "Technological innovations and the transformation of economic sectors: A concise overview of issues and concepts," Research Contributions to Organizational Sociology and Innovation Studies, SOI Discussion Papers 2018-01, University of Stuttgart, Institute for Social Sciences, Department of Organizational Sociology and Innovation Studies.
    3. Dolata, Ulrich, 2020. "Internet – Plattformen – Regulierung: Koordination von Märkten und Kuratierung von Sozialität," Research Contributions to Organizational Sociology and Innovation Studies, SOI Discussion Papers 2020-01, University of Stuttgart, Institute for Social Sciences, Department of Organizational Sociology and Innovation Studies.
    4. Kropp, Cordula, 2018. "Sustainable innovations: Theories, conflicts and strategies," Research Contributions to Organizational Sociology and Innovation Studies, SOI Discussion Papers 2018-02, University of Stuttgart, Institute for Social Sciences, Department of Organizational Sociology and Innovation Studies.

    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. Dolata, Ulrich, 2017. "Technological innovations and the transformation of economic sectors: A concise overview of issues and concepts," Research Contributions to Organizational Sociology and Innovation Studies, SOI Discussion Papers 2018-01, University of Stuttgart, Institute for Social Sciences, Department of Organizational Sociology and Innovation Studies.
    2. Dolata, Ulrich, 2017. "Apple, Amazon, Google, Facebook, Microsoft: Market concentration - competition - innovation strategies," Research Contributions to Organizational Sociology and Innovation Studies, SOI Discussion Papers 2017-01, University of Stuttgart, Institute for Social Sciences, Department of Organizational Sociology and Innovation Studies.
    3. Kropp, Cordula, 2018. "Sustainable innovations: Theories, conflicts and strategies," Research Contributions to Organizational Sociology and Innovation Studies, SOI Discussion Papers 2018-02, University of Stuttgart, Institute for Social Sciences, Department of Organizational Sociology and Innovation Studies.
    4. Schrape, Jan-Felix, 2024. "Distributed innovation processes: Key concepts, case studies, current developments," Research Contributions to Organizational Sociology and Innovation Studies, SOI Discussion Papers 2024-03, University of Stuttgart, Institute for Social Sciences, Department of Organizational Sociology and Innovation Studies.
    5. Dolata, Ulrich, 2017. "Social movements and the Internet: The sociotechnical constitution of collective action," Research Contributions to Organizational Sociology and Innovation Studies, SOI Discussion Papers 2017-02, University of Stuttgart, Institute for Social Sciences, Department of Organizational Sociology and Innovation Studies.
    6. Schrape, Jan-Felix, 2019. "Technology and the promise of decentralization: Origins, development, patterns of arguments," Research Contributions to Organizational Sociology and Innovation Studies, SOI Discussion Papers 2019-01, University of Stuttgart, Institute for Social Sciences, Department of Organizational Sociology and Innovation Studies.
    7. Schreyer, Jasmin, 2020. "Sharing ≠ Sharing Economy: Ausprägungen der digitalen Sharing Economy im Lebensmittelsektor," Research Contributions to Organizational Sociology and Innovation Studies, SOI Discussion Papers 2020-03, University of Stuttgart, Institute for Social Sciences, Department of Organizational Sociology and Innovation Studies.
    8. Dreher, Marc, 2023. "Organisation und Ideologie des Transhumanismus: Historisch-soziologische Rekonstruktion einer Pioniergemeinschaft," Research Contributions to Organizational Sociology and Innovation Studies, SOI Discussion Papers 2023-01, University of Stuttgart, Institute for Social Sciences, Department of Organizational Sociology and Innovation Studies.
    9. Fettke, Ulrike, 2018. "Etablierte und Außenseiter in der Kommunalpolitik? Eine Fallstudie zu Windkraft in einer badenwürttembergischen Kleinstadt," Research Contributions to Organizational Sociology and Innovation Studies, SOI Discussion Papers 2018-03, University of Stuttgart, Institute for Social Sciences, Department of Organizational Sociology and Innovation Studies.
    10. Dolata, Ulrich, 2020. "Internet – Plattformen – Regulierung: Koordination von Märkten und Kuratierung von Sozialität," Research Contributions to Organizational Sociology and Innovation Studies, SOI Discussion Papers 2020-01, University of Stuttgart, Institute for Social Sciences, Department of Organizational Sociology and Innovation Studies.
    11. Dolata, Ulrich, 2018. "Privatisierung, Kuratierung, Kommodifizierung: Kommerzielle Plattformen im Internet," Research Contributions to Organizational Sociology and Innovation Studies, SOI Discussion Papers 2018-04, University of Stuttgart, Institute for Social Sciences, Department of Organizational Sociology and Innovation Studies.
    12. Kungl, Gregor & Geels, Frank W., 2016. "The destabilisation of the German electricity industry (1998-2015): Application and extension of a multi-dimensional framework," Research Contributions to Organizational Sociology and Innovation Studies, SOI Discussion Papers 2016-02, University of Stuttgart, Institute for Social Sciences, Department of Organizational Sociology and Innovation Studies.
    13. Dolata, Ulrich, 2020. "The digital transformation of the music industry. The second decade: From download to streaming," Research Contributions to Organizational Sociology and Innovation Studies, SOI Discussion Papers 2020-04, University of Stuttgart, Institute for Social Sciences, Department of Organizational Sociology and Innovation Studies.
    14. Dolata, Ulrich, 2020. "Internet – Platforms – Regulation: Coordination of Markets and Curation of Sociality," Research Contributions to Organizational Sociology and Innovation Studies, SOI Discussion Papers 2020-02, University of Stuttgart, Institute for Social Sciences, Department of Organizational Sociology and Innovation Studies.
    15. Dolata, Ulrich, 2014. "Märkte und Macht der Internetkonzerne: Konzentration - Konkurrenz - Innovationsstrategien," Research Contributions to Organizational Sociology and Innovation Studies, SOI Discussion Papers 2014-04, University of Stuttgart, Institute for Social Sciences, Department of Organizational Sociology and Innovation Studies.
    16. Schrape, Jan-Felix, 2021. "Platformization, pluralization, synthetization: Public communication in the digital age," Research Contributions to Organizational Sociology and Innovation Studies, SOI Discussion Papers 2021-02, University of Stuttgart, Institute for Social Sciences, Department of Organizational Sociology and Innovation Studies.
    17. Dolata, Ulrich & Schrape, Jan-Felix, 2022. "Platform architectures: The structuration of platform companies on the Internet," Research Contributions to Organizational Sociology and Innovation Studies, SOI Discussion Papers 2022-01, University of Stuttgart, Institute for Social Sciences, Department of Organizational Sociology and Innovation Studies.
    18. Schrape, Jan-Felix, 2016. "Social media, mass media and the 'public sphere': Differentiation, complementarity and co-existence," Research Contributions to Organizational Sociology and Innovation Studies, SOI Discussion Papers 2016-01, University of Stuttgart, Institute for Social Sciences, Department of Organizational Sociology and Innovation Studies.
    19. Kungl, Gregor, 2014. "The incumbent German power companies in a changing environment: A comparison of E.ON, RWE, EnBW and Vattenfall from 1998 to 2013," Research Contributions to Organizational Sociology and Innovation Studies, SOI Discussion Papers 2014-03, University of Stuttgart, Institute for Social Sciences, Department of Organizational Sociology and Innovation Studies.
    20. Dolata, Ulrich & Schrape, Jan Felix, 2014. "Masses, crowds, communities, movements: Collective formations in the digital age," Research Contributions to Organizational Sociology and Innovation Studies, SOI Discussion Papers 2014-02, University of Stuttgart, Institute for Social Sciences, Department of Organizational Sociology and Innovation Studies.

    More about this item

    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:zbw:stusoi:201703. 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: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.uni-stuttgart.de/soz/oi/index.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.