article

Continued Voluntary Participation Intention in Firm-Participating Open Source Software Projects

Authors:

Arun RaiAuthors Info & Claims

Information Systems Research, Volume 28, Issue 3

Pages 603 - 625

https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.2016.0687

Published: 01 September 2017 Publication History

Abstract

Firm participation in open source software OSS development is a noteworthy phenomenon and includes two types of firm-participating OSS projects: community founded developed from an open project and spinout spun out from an information technology firm's internal project. OSS project leaders implement quality controls to improve the quality of developed products. They may not be aware that their implementation of quality controls produces a side effect-quality controls signal unobservable project quality to volunteers and promote volunteers' continued participation intentions VCPI. We focus on two quality controls-accreditation and code acceptance, which, respectively, map to the input and output quality of an OSS project-and compare their respective effects on VCPI in community-founded and spinout projects. We propose that accreditation and code acceptance influence VCPI by signaling unobservable input and output quality to volunteers. As we focus on continued participation, we theorize as to how volunteers' tenure in OSS projects moderates the relationships between the signaling effects of input and output quality controls and VCPI. Furthermore, we theorize as to how the OSS project type moderates the effects of quality controls on VCPI. We surveyed 304 volunteers from 40 OSS projects and constructed a two-level model of project and developer factors to explain VCPI. Our findings indicate that both accreditation and code acceptance enhance VCPI. The signaling effects on VCPI associated with accreditation decline with volunteer tenure, but those associated with code acceptance do not. Accreditation and code acceptance influence VCPI, with community-founded projects exhibiting weaker direct positive effects and spinout projects exhibiting stronger direct positive effects. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these findings.

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cover image Information Systems Research

Information Systems Research Volume 28, Issue 3

September 2017

233 pages

ISSN:1526-5536

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INFORMS

Linthicum, MD, United States

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Published: 01 September 2017

Accepted: 02 July 2016

Received: 22 July 2013

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