Two Essays on Open Source Software Development and Adoption

Abstract

The 2023 State of open source report highlights that 80% of organizations increased their use of open source software (OSS) in 2022 (OpenLogic and OSI, 2023), and the primary reason is to have access to innovations and new technologies. Open source software (OSS) has gained importance among information technology (IT) firms in recent years due to its advantages, and it is considered an integral part of their strategies. The benefits of OSS include low cost of development, availability of reusable architectural and functional components, unrestricted access to the source codes, and a source of innovations. Increased adoption of OSS by IT firms enables more open collaborative innovations than an individual or a firm. The adoption of OSS by the firms brings business values beyond their boundaries. Considering the technological advancements, including OSS, we attempt to find answers to the following questions: What factors influence the performance of OSS development across the stages of the OSS development lifecycle? How does OSS adoption influence the innovation performance of IT firms, and what other factors moderate their relationship? With the review of extant literature in the area, the gap is felt in understanding the influence of firm, team, and project characteristics across stages of OSS development. The author draws an OSS adoption framework developed by an earlier systematic literature review study to explore OSS adoption in IT firms. The author carried out his research using the two essays format. Essay1 OSS Project s Stage wise Performance: An Empirical Study , explores the influence of OSS project characteristics on its performance across the development lifecycle stages, and Essay2 The Role of OSS Adoption, Absorptive Capacity, Network Actions, and Intellectual Property Rights on an IT Firm s Innovation Performance investigates the OSS adoption and innovation performance. The author explored the antecedents of OSS project performance in the literature and developed a framework with three stages..