Publications

2005
Book

Perspectives on Free and Open Source Software

By: Joe Feller, Brian Fitzgerald, Scott Hissam and Karim R. Lakhani

Keywords: Perspective; Applications and Software; Knowledge Sharing

July 2011
Article

Mixed Source

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Gaston Llanes

We study competitive interaction between a profit-maximizing firm that sells software and complementary services and a free open source competitor. We examine the firm's choice of business model between the proprietary model (where all software modules are... View Details

Keywords: Competition; Open Source Distribution; Profit; Sales; Applications and Software; Service Operations; Business Model; Decision Choices and Conditions; Quality; Value Creation

15 Oct 2009
Working Paper Summaries

Mixed Source

Keywords: by Ramon Casadesus-Masanell & Gastón Llanes; Technology

2010
Working Paper

Mixed Source

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Gaston Llanes

We study competitive interaction between a profit-maximizing firm that sells software and complementary services and a free open source competitor. We examine the firm's choice of business model between the proprietary model (where all software modules are... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Duopoly and Oligopoly; Monopoly; Open Source Distribution; Quality; Competition; Information Technology Industry

September 2004 (Revised June 2005)
Case

Wintel (F): From Multi-Geographic Contact to Open Source

By: David B. Yoffie

Supplements the (A) case. View Details

Keywords: Computer Industry

Educators

2015
Working Paper

Crowdsourced Digital Goods and Firm Productivity: Evidence from Open Source Software

By: Frank Nagle

As firms increasingly rely on crowdsourced digital goods, understanding their impact on productivity becomes critical. This study measures the firm-level productivity impact of one such good, non-pecuniary (free) open source software (OSS). The results show a... View Details

Keywords: Open Source Distribution; Performance Productivity; Software

SSRN

June 2003
Article

How Open Source Software Works: "Free" User-to-User Assistance

By: Karim R. Lakhani and Eric von Hippel

Keywords: Information Technology; Applications and Software

2024
Working Paper

Contributing to Growth? The Role of Open Source Software for Global Startups

By: Nataliya Langburd Wright, Frank Nagle and Shane Greenstein

How does participating in open source software (OSS) communities spur entrepreneurial growth? To address this question, we analyze novel data matching accounts from GitHub—the largest OSS hosting platform—to the universe of global software venture-backed firms... View Details

Keywords: Applications and Software; Open Source Distribution; Entrepreneurship; Business Growth and Maturation; Human Capital; Valuation; Corporate Strategy

SSRN

Article

The Economics of Technology Sharing: Open Source and Beyond

By: Josh Lerner and Jean Tirole

Keywords: Economics; Technology

May 2007
Article

The Governance of Open Source Initiatives: What Does it Mean to be Community Managed?

The concept of 'open source' software initially referred to software projects managed by grassroots communities in public forums. Since 1998, the concept has been adapted and diffused to new settings that extend beyond software. While the open source community has... View Details

Keywords: Governance; Open Source Distribution

18 Feb 2020
News

The Linux Foundation and Harvard’s Lab for Innovation Science Release Census for Open Source Software Security

July 2003
Article

Community, Joining, and Specialization in Open Source Software Innovation: A Case Study

By: Georg von Krogh, Sebastian Spaeth and Karim R. Lakhani

Keywords: Civil Society or Community; Applications and Software; Information; Information Technology Industry

June 2015 (Revised August 2018)
Case

American Electric Power: Facing the Challenges of Distributed Generation

By: Richard H.K. Vietor and Hilary White

American Electric Power, like most utilities in the USA, is currently exposed to distributed generation and the problem of net-metering. Solar installations in particular have been heavily subsidized, by the state and by regulation, which does not allow grid operators... View Details

Educators

15 Dec 2006
Working Paper Summaries

The Business of Free Software: Enterprise Incentives, Investment, and Motivation in the Open Source Community

Keywords: by Marco Iansiti & Gregory L. Richards; Video Game; Web Services

05 Jul 2006
Working Paper Summaries

Exploring the Structure of Complex Software Designs: An Empirical Study of Open Source and Proprietary Code

Keywords: by Alan D. MacCormack, John Rusnak & Carliss Y. Baldwin; Video Game; Web Services

18 May 2012
Working Paper Summaries

Organization Design for Distributed Innovation

Keywords: by Carliss Y. Baldwin

March 2016
Module Note

Government Policy and Distributive Justice

By: Matthew Weinzierl

This note introduces the second of two main modules in the HBS elective curriculum course, The Role of Government in Market Economies (RoGME). This module is focused on policies, such as taxes, that change the distribution of economic outcomes. Like the... View Details

Keywords: Policy; Government and Politics; Economics

2020
White Paper

Vulnerabilities in the Core: Preliminary Report and Census II of Open Source Software

By: Frank Nagle, Jessica Wilkerson, James Dana and Jennifer L. Hoffman