Open innovation and within-industry diversification in small and medium enterprises: The case of open source software firms

Research Policy

Volumn 43, Issue 5, 2014, Pages 891-902

  Colombo, Massimo G ^a   Piva, Evila ^a   Rossi Lamastra, Cristina ^a  

^a POLITECNICO DI MILANO   (Italy)

Author keywords

Open innovation; Open Source community; Small and medium enterprises; Within industry diversification

Indexed keywords

COMPUTER SOFTWARE; INNOVATION;

EXTERNAL RESOURCES; OPEN INNOVATION; OPEN SOURCE COMMUNITIES; OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE; OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE COMMUNITY; SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISE; TECHNOLOGICAL RESOURCES; WITHIN-INDUSTRY DIVERSIFICATION;

INDUSTRY;

EID: 84899631788     PISSN: 00487333     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1016/j.respol.2013.08.015     Document Type: Article

References (85)

1. Ågerfalk, P.J., Fitzgeral, B., 2008. Outsourcing to an unknown workforce: exploringopensourcing as a global sourcing strategy. MIS Quarterly 32 (2), 385-409.
2. Baldwin, C.Y., Clark, K.B., 2000. Design Rules: The Power of Modularity. CambridgeUniversity Press, Cambridge, MA.
3. Barney, J.B., 1997. Gaining and Sustaining Competitive Advantage. Addison Wesley,Reading, MA.
4. Berry, C.H., 1971. Corporate growth and industrial diversification. Journal of Lawand Economics XIV, 371-383.
5. Bogers, M., West, J., 2013. Leveraging external sources of innovation: a review ofresearch on Open Innovation. Journal of Product Innovation Management (forth-coming).
6. Bonaccorsi, A., Giannangeli, S., Rossi, C., 2006. Entry strategies under competingstandards: hybrid business models in the Open Source software industry. Man-agement Science 52 (7), 1085-1098.
7. Bonaccorsi, A., Rossi, C., 2006. Comparing motivations of individual programmersand firms to take part in the Open Source movement. From community to busi-ness. Knowledge, Technology and Policy 18 (4), 40-64.
8. Bonaccorsi, A., Rossi, C., Scateni, A., 2005. Report of ELISS Project. European LibreSoftware Survey MIMEO.
9. Börjesson, S., Löfsten, H., 2012. Capabilities for innovation in small firms - a studyof 131 high-tech firms and their relation to performance. International Journalof Business Innovation and Research 6 (2), 149-176.
10. Capra, E., Francalanci, C., Merlo, F., Rossi-Lamastra, C., 2011. Firms' involvement inOpen Source projects: a trade-off between software quality and success. Journalof Systems and Software 84, 144-161.
11. Chandler, A.D., 1990. Scale and Scope: The Dynamics of Industrial Competition.Harvard Business School, Cambridge, MA.
12. Chesbrough, H., Vanhaverbeke, W., West, J., 2006. Open Innovation: Researching aNew Paradigm. Oxford University Press, London.
13. Chesbrough, H.W., 2003. Open Innovation: The New Imperative for Creating andProfiting from Technology. Harvard Business School Press, Boston.
14. Colombo, M.G., Grilli, L., Murtinu, S., Piscitello, L., Piva, E., 2009. Effects of inter-national R&D alliances on performance of high-tech start-ups: a longitudinalanalysis. Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal 3 (4), 346-368.
15. Colombo, M.G., Laursen, K., Magnusson, M., Rossi-Lamastra, C., 2012. Introduction:Small business and networked innovation: organizational and managerial chal-lenges. Journal of Small Business Management 50 (2), 181-190.
16. Colombo, M.G., Piva, E., Rossi-Lamastra, C., 2013. Authorizing employees to collab-orate with communities during working hours: when is it valuable for firms?Long Range Planning 46, 236-257.
17. Cosh, A., Zhang, J.J., 2012. Ambidexterity and Open Innovation in Small and MediumSized Firms (SMEs). In: Paper presented at Open innovation: new insights andevidence conference, Imperial College London, 25th-26th June.
18. Dahlander, L., Gann, D.M., 2010. How open is innovation? Research Policy 39 (6),699-709.
19. Dahlander, L., Magnusson, M., 2008. How do firms make use of Open Source com-munities? Long Range Planning 41, 629-649.
20. Dahlander, L., Piezunka, H., 2013. Open to suggestions: how organizations elicitsuggestions through proactive and reactive attention. Research Policy (forth-coming).
21. Dahlander, L., Wallin, M., 2006. A man on the inside: unlocking communities ascomplementary assets. Research Policy 35, 1243-1259.
22. Doz, Y.L., 1996. The evolution of cooperation in strategic alliances: initial conditionsor learning processes? Strategic Management Journal 17, 55-83.
23. Edwards, K., 2001. Epistemic communities, situated learning and open source soft-ware development. Working paper.
24. Eisenhardt, K.M., 1989. Making fast strategic decisions in high-velocity environ-ments. Academy of Management Journal 32 (3), 543-576.
25. Feller, J., Fitzgerald, B., 2002. Understanding Open Source Software Development.Addison Wesley, Boston, MA.
26. Fey, C.F., Birkinshaw, J., 2005. External sources of knowledge, governance mode, andR&D performance. Journal of Management 31 (4), 597-621.
27. Gandal, N., Fershtman, C., 2011. Direct and indirect knowledge spillovers: The socialnetwork of open source software. RAND Journal of Economics 42 (1), 70-91.
28. Gartner Dataquest, 2004. Software Market Research Methodology and Definitions,2003-2004 Update, Available at: www.gartner.
29. comGassmann, O., Enkel, E., Chesbrough, H.W., 2010. The future of open innovation. R&DManagement 40 (3), 213-221.
30. Grand, S., von Krogh, G., Leonard, D., Swap, W., 2004. Resource allocation beyondfirm boundaries: a multi-level model for Open Source innovation. Long RangePlanning 37, 591-610.
31. Gruber, M., Henkel, J., 2006. New ventures based on open innovation - an empiricalanalysis of start-up firms in embedded Linux. International Journal of Technol-ogy Management 4, 356-372.
32. Harison, E., Koski, H., 2010. Applying open innovation in business strategies: evidence from Finnish software firms. Research Policy 39 (3), 351-359.
33. Hars, A., Ou, S., 2002. Working for free? Motivations for participating in Open-Sourceprojects. International Journal of Electronic Commerce 6 (3), 25-39.
34. Henkel, J., 2006. Selective revealing in open innovation processes: the case of embed-ded Linux. Research Policy 35 (7), 953-969.
35. Henkel, J., 2009. Champions of revealing - the role of Open Source developers incommercial firms. Industrial and Corporate Change 18 (3), 435-471.
36. Henkel, J., Schoberl, S., Alexy, O., 2012. The emergence of openness: how firms discover and intensify engagement in selective revealing. In: Paper presented atthe conference 'Open Innovation: New Insights and Evidence', Imperial College,London, June 25-26.
37. Hoetker, G., 2007. The use of logit and probit models in strategic man-agement research: critical issues. Strategic Management Journal 28 (4),331-343.
38. Huang, H-C., 2011. Technological innovation capability creation potential of openinnovation: a cross-level analysis in the biotechnology industry. TechnologyAnalysis & Strategic Management 23 (1), 49-63.
39. Huizingh, E.K.R.E., 2011. Open innovation: state of the art and future perspectives.Technovation 31, 2-9.
40. Jacquemin, A.P., Berry, C.H., 1979. Entropy measure of diversification and corporategrowth. Journal of Industrial Economics 27, 359-369.
41. Kim, D-J., Kogut, B., 1996. Technological platforms and diversification. OrganizationScience 7 (3), 283-301.
42. King, G., Tomz, M., Wittenberg, J., 2000. Making the most of statistical analyses:improving interpretation and presentation. American Journal of Political Science44 (2), 347-361.
43. Lakhani, K.R., von Hippel, E., 2003. How open source works: free user-to-user assis-tance. Research Policy 32, 923-943.
44. Lee, S., Park, G., Yoon, B., Park, J., 2010. Open innovation in SMEs - an intermediatednetwork model. Research Policy 39, 290-300.
45. Lerner, J., Schankerman, M., 2010. The comingled code: open source and economicdevelopment. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.
46. Lerner, J., Tirole, J., 2005. The economics of technology sharing: Open Source andbeyond. Journal of Economic Perspectives 19 (2), 99-120.
47. Li, S.X., Greenwood, R., 2004. The effect of within-industry diversification on firmperformance: synergy creation, multi-market contact and market structuration.Strategic Management Journal 25, 1131-1153.
48. Lubatkin, M., Merchant, H., Srinivasan, N., 1993. Construct validity of someunweighted product-count diversification measures. Strategic ManagementJournal 14, 433-449.
49. Lynn, M.L., 1998. Patterns of micro-enterprise diversification in transitionalEuroasian economies. International Small Business Journal 16 (2), 34-49.
50. Lynn, M.L., Reinsch, N., 1990. Diversification patterns among small businesses. Jour-nal of Small Business Management 28 (4), 60-70.
51. Markides, C.C., Williamson, P.J., 1994. Related diversification, core competencies andcorporate performance. Strategic Management Journal 15, 149-165.
52. Mosakowski, E., 1997. Strategy making under causal ambiguity: conceptual issuesand empirical evidence. Organization Science 8 (4), 414-442.
53. O'Mahony, S., 2003. Guarding the commons: How community managed softwareprojects protect their work. Research Policy 32 (7), 1179-1198.
54. O'Mahony, S., Bechky, B.A., 2008. Boundary organizations: enabling collabo-ration among unexpected allies. Administrative Science Quarterly 53 (3),422-459.
55. Parida, V., Westerberg, M., Frishammar, J., 2012. Inbound open innovation activi-ties in high-tech SMEs: the impact on innovation performance. Journal of SmallBusiness Management 50 (2), 283-309.
56. Penrose, E.G., 1959. The Theory of the Growth of the Firm. Wiley, New York.
57. Piva, E., Rossi-Lamastra, C., 2012. The license choices of SMEs doing business withOpen Source Software: empirical evidence on Italian firms. International Journalof Open Source Software and Processes 4 (1), 20-36.
58. Polkinghorne, D., 1988. Narrative Knowing and the Human Sciences (SUNY Series inPhilosophy of the Social Sciences). State University of New York Press, Albany.
59. Raymond, E.S., 2001. A brief story of hackerdrom. In: The cathedral and the bazaar:musings on Linux and Open Source by an accidental revolutionary. O'Reilly &Associates, Sebastopol, CA.
60. Robins, J., Wiersema, M.F., 2003. The measurement of corporate portfolio strat-egy: analysis of the content validity of related diversification indexes. StrategicManagement Journal 24, 39-59.
61. Robson, G., Gallagher, C., Daly, M., 1993. Diversification strategy and practice in smallfirms. International Small Business Journal 11 (2), 37-53.
62. Rolandsson, B., Bergquist, M., Ljungberg, J., 2011. Open source in the firm: opening upprofessional practices of software development. Research Policy 40, 576-587.
63. Rumelt, R.P., 1974. Strategy, structure, and economic performance. Harvard Univer-sity Press, Cambridge/MA.
64. Sambharya, R.B., 2000. Assessing the construct validity of strategic and SIC-based measures of corporate diversification. British Journal of Management 11,163-173.
65. Schroll, A., Mild, A., 2011. Open innovation modes and the role of internal R&D. Anempirical study on open innovation adoption in Europe. European Journal ofInnovation Management 14 (4), 475-495.
66. Stam, W., 2009. When does community participation enhance the performance ofopen source software companies. Research Policy 38, 1288-1299.
67. Stamelos, I., Angelis, L., Oikonomou, A., Bleri, G.L., 2002. Code quality analysis in opensource software development. Information System Journal 12, 43-60.
68. Stern, I., Henderson, A.D., 2004. Within-business diversification in technology inten-sive industries. Strategic Management Journal 25, 487-505.
69. Stewart, K.J., Ammeter, A.P., Maruping, L.M., 2006. The impacts of license choice andorganizational sponsorship on user interest and development activity in OpenSource software projects. Information Systems Research 17 (2), 126-144.
70. Stinchcombe, F., 1965. Social structure and organizations. In: March, J.G. (Ed.), Hand-book of Organizations. Rand McNally, Chicago, pp. 142-193.
71. Tanriverdi, H.S., Lee, C-H., 2008. Within-industry diversification and firm perfor-mance in the presence of network externalities: evidence from the softwareindustry. Academy of Management Journal 51 (2), 381-397.
72. Teece, D.J., 1982. Toward an economic theory of the multiproduct firm. Journal ofEconomic Behavior and Organization 3, 39-63.
73. Torrisi, S., 1998. Industrial Organisation and Innovation. An International Study ofthe Software Industry. Edward Elgar Publishing, Cheltenham/Northampton, MA.
74. Van de Vrande, V., de Jong, J.P.J., Vanhaverbeke, W., de Rochemont, M., 2009. OpenInnovation in SME's: trends, motives and management challenges. Technovation29, 423-437.
75. Varadarajan, P.R., Ramanujam, V., 1987. Diversification and performance: A reex-amination using a new two-dimensional conceptualization of diversity in firms. Academy of Management Journal 30, 380-393.
76. Ven, K., De Bruyn, P., 2011. Factors affecting the development of absorptive capacityin the adoption of Open Source Software. International Journal of Open Sourcesoftware and processes 3 (1), 17-38.
77. Von Hippel, E., von Krogh, G., 2003. Open Source software and the private-collectiveinnovation model: issues for organization science. Organization Science 14 (2),209-223.
78. von Krogh, G., Spaeth, S., Lakhani, K., 2003. Community, joining script and special-ization in open source software innovation: a case study. Research Policy 32 (7),1217-1242.
79. Wan, W.P., Hoskisson, R.E., Short, J.C., Yiu, D.W., 2011. Resource-based theory andcorporate diversification: accomplishments and opportunities. Journal of Man-agement 37 (5), 1335-1368.
80. West, J., Lakhani, K., 2008. Getting clear about the role of communities in openinnovation. Industry and Innovation 15 (2), 223-231.
81. West, J., O'Mahony, S., 2008. The role of participation architecture in growing spon-sored Open Source communities. Industry and Innovation 15 (2), 145-168.
82. West, L.A., 1994. Researching the cost of information system. Journal of ManagementInformation Systems 11 (2), 75-107.
83. Wood, A., 1971. Diversification, merger and research expenditures: a review ofempirical studies. In: Morris, R., Wood, A. (Eds.), The Corporate Economy:Growth, Competition, and Innovation Potential. Harvard University Press, Cam-bridge, MA, pp. 428-453.
84. Zahavi, T., Lavie, D., 2013. Intra-industry diversification and firm performance.Strategic Management Journal 34 (8), 978-998.
85. Zelner, B.A., 2009. Research notes and commentaries: using simulation to interpretresults from Logit, Probit, and other nonlinear models. Strategic ManagementJournal 30, 1335-1348.