The Value of Engaging with Open Source Communities

Abstract

Organizational engagement with open source communities has become increasingly common. Open source is becoming a widely accepted and utilized form of innovation and product development. The fact that organizations extend their development efforts to open source communities not only demonstrates that open source meets the needs of organizations but also that it is perceived as the best solution among alternatives. In this research, I take a value perspective for understanding how organizations evaluate their engagement with open source communities. I build on signaling theory to understand how organizations perceive open source communities and make value judgments about their engagement. This research contributes to the growing evidence of how open source integrates with business strategy. Open source office managers in organizations can use the results of this research to better articulate open source engagement and open source communities benefit from the results by learning how to best attract organizational members and maintain valuable engagements with them.