Publications

2019
Article

Overcoming Cultural Resistance to Open Source Innovation

By: John Winsor, Jin Hyun Paik, Michael Tushman and Karim R. Lakhani

Purpose: This article offers insight on how to effectively help incumbent organizations prepare for global business shifts to open source and digital business models.
Design/methodology/approach: Discussion related to observation, experience and case studies... View Details

Keywords: Open Source Innovation; Organizational Culture; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Business Model; Technological Innovation; Collaborative Innovation and Invention

2022
White Paper

Census II of Free and Open Source Software - Application Libraries

By: Frank Nagle, James Dana, Jennifer Hoffman, Steven Randazzo and Yanuo Zhou

Produced in partnership with Harvard Laboratory for Innovation Science (LISH) and the Open Source Security Foundation (OpenSSF), Census II is the second investigation into the widespread use of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS). The Census II effort utilizes data... View Details

Keywords: Open Source Software; Applications and Software; Cybersecurity; Open Source Distribution

May 2022
Article

Strengthening Digital Infrastructure: A Policy Agenda for Free and Open Source Software

By: Frank Nagle

While there is little debate that digital forces are playing an increasingly crucial role in the economy, there is limited understanding of the importance of the digital infrastructure that underlies this role. Much of the discussion around digital infrastructure has... View Details

Keywords: Open Source; Applications and Software; Policy; Infrastructure; Open Source Distribution

2020
Working Paper

How Competition Affects Contributions to Open Source Platforms: Evidence from OpenStreetMap and Google Maps

By: Abhishek Nagaraj and Henning Piezunka

Open source platforms often face competition from commercial alternatives and yet we lack an understanding of whether and how commercial competition affects contributions to open source platforms. We study how contributions to OpenStreetMap, a widely-used open source... View Details

Keywords: Open Source Platforms; Contributions; Competitive Entry; Impact; Multi-Sided Platforms; Competition

Forthcoming
Article

Beefing IT Up for Your Investor? Engagement with Open Source Communities, Innovation, and Startup Funding: Evidence from GitHub

By: Annamaria Conti, Christian Peukert and Maria Roche

We study the engagement of nascent firms with open source communities and its implications for innovation and attracting funding. To do so, we link data on 160,065 U.S. startups from Crunchbase to their activities on the open source software development platform... View Details

Keywords: Startups; Knowledge; Open Source Communities; GitHub; Machine Learning; Innovation; Business Startups; Venture Capital; Information Technology; Strategy

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July 2004 (Revised September 2005)
Case

Novell: Open Source Software Strategy

Describes Novell's open source software strategy and the business environment in which it has arisen. Introduces open source software and strategies based on open source and offers opportunities to discuss IT strategy, IT management, and organizational change. One key... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Value Creation; Strategy; Open Source Distribution; Information Technology; Applications and Software; Intellectual Property; Information Technology Industry

19 Jul 2020
Working Paper Summaries

Open Source Software and Global Entrepreneurship

Keywords: by Nataliya Langburd Wright, Frank Nagle, and Shane Greenstein; Computer

07 Jul 2003
Research & Ideas

The Organizational Model for Open Source

three projects: Debian, a complete non-commercial distribution of Linux; the GNU Object Model Environment (GNOME), which is a graphical user interface for Linux-based operating systems; and Apache, a public domain View Details

Keywords: by Mallory Stark

16 May 2000
Research & Ideas

The Simple Economics of Open Source

generosity and knowledge-bearing have not really been guiding factors in other industries: so why would they dominate the computer field? Instead, they suggest, laboring on open source brings developers and... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Technology

March 2019 (Revised June 2019)
Case

Global Sourcing at Nike

By: Nien-hê Hsieh, Michael W. Toffel and Olivia Hull

This case explores the evolution of Nike’s global product sourcing strategy, in particular ongoing efforts to improve working conditions at its suppliers’ factories. When the case opens in July 2018, Vice President of Sourcing Amanda Tucker and her colleagues in Nike’s... View Details

May 2001
Article

The Open Source Movement: Key Research Questions

By: Josh Lerner and Jean Tirole

The paper analyzes the incentives of individual programmers and of commercial companies to participate in open source projects. While these incentives are in our opinion well accounted for by the economic paradigm, much empirical and theoretical work is still needed to... View Details

Keywords: Motivation and Incentives; Open Source Distribution

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November 2023
Case

Open Source Machine Learning at Google

By: Shane Greenstein, Martin Wattenberg, Fernanda B. Viégas, Daniel Yue and James Barnett

Set in early 2023, the case exposes students to the challenges of managing open source software at Google. The case focuses on the challenges for Alex Spinelli, Vice President of Product Management for Core Machine Learning. He must set priorities for Google’s efforts... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Technological Innovation; Open Source Distribution; Strategy; AI and Machine Learning; Applications and Software; Technology Industry; United States

November – December 2011
Article

Competitive Strategy for Open Source Software

By: Vineet Kumar, Brett Gordon and Kannan Srinivasan

Commercial open source software (COSS) products-privately developed software based on publicly available source code-represent a rapidly growing, multibillion-dollar market. A unique aspect of competition in the COSS market is that many open source licenses require... View Details

Keywords: Applications and Software; Competitive Strategy; Product Development; Growth and Development; Markets; Motivation and Incentives; Quality; Policy; Perspective; Profit; Open Source Distribution; Emerging Markets

Find at Harvard

2024
Working Paper

The Value of Open Source Software

By: Manuel Hoffmann, Frank Nagle and Yanuo Zhou

The value of a non-pecuniary (free) product is inherently difficult to assess. A pervasive example is open source software (OSS), a global public good that plays a vital role in the economy and is foundational for most technology we use today. However, it is... View Details

Keywords: Valuation; Open Source Distribution; Applications and Software

24 Feb 2020
Research & Ideas

The Hidden Vulnerabilities of Open Source Software

is difficult to fully understand the health and security of FOSS because 1) by design, it is distributed in nature so there is no central authority to ensure quality and maintenance, and 2) FOSS can be freely copied and modified, so it is... View Details

Keywords: by Frank Nagle and Jenny Hoffman; Computer

September 2023
Technical Note

Free and Open Source Software and Hardware

By: Frank Nagle

This technical note surveys the concepts of free and open source software and hardware. It introduces the concepts in general, providing a brief history of their development and numerous examples of how companies employ them in practice. Further, it identifies various... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Strategy; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Technological Innovation; Nonprofit Organizations; Competitive Strategy; Patents; Information Technology; Business Model; Open Source Distribution; Applications and Software; Information Technology Industry; Technology Industry

11 Jan 2010
Research & Ideas

Mixing Open Source and Proprietary Software Strategies

Adopting a new business model can be a strategic, game-changing play in any industry. But knowing when and how to try something new can be tricky, particularly in the constantly evolving software industry. The open View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Web Services

March 2019
Article

Open Source Software and Firm Productivity

By: Frank Nagle

As open source software (OSS) is increasingly used as a key input by firms, understanding its impact on productivity becomes critical. This study measures the firm-level productivity impact of nonpecuniary (free) OSS and finds a positive and significant value-added... View Details

Keywords: Applications and Software; Open Source Distribution; Performance Productivity; Information Technology; Strategy