TY - JOUR
T1 - The contingent role of interproject connectedness in cultivating open source software projects
AU - Sutanto, Juliana
AU - Jiang, Qiqi
AU - Tan, Chuan-Hoo
N1 - Funding Information:
This research is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China ( 71702133 , 71704078 , 71801217 , and 71532015 ) and Singapore Ministry of Education Academic Research Fund Tier 1 , R-253-000-121-133 .
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2021/3
Y1 - 2021/3
N2 - A better understanding of the key to successful open-source software (OSS) development continues to motivate research. Aligned with work that builds on the notion that an OSS development is tightly interrelated with its social environment (i.e., the OSS community), this study examines the relationship between interproject structure and OSS project success. OSS project success is reflected in two forms: popularity and knowledge creation. Extending the extant OSS literature, we theorize a contingent role of interproject connectedness. In particular, we posit three points: (1) an OSS project with more structural holes achieves higher popularity; (2) an OSS project with fewer structural holes yields higher knowledge creation; and (3) these two relationships are enhanced by an increase in project maturity. Using a dataset longitudinally collected from SourceForge.net, we found that OSS projects with widespread connectedness are more popular. This is especially so for those OSS projects in the mid-mature stage. We also found that OSS projects with a cohesive network achieve higher knowledge creation, irrespective of their maturity. Findings from our study can contribute to OSS literature by identifying OSS projects that are more likely to be successful.
AB - A better understanding of the key to successful open-source software (OSS) development continues to motivate research. Aligned with work that builds on the notion that an OSS development is tightly interrelated with its social environment (i.e., the OSS community), this study examines the relationship between interproject structure and OSS project success. OSS project success is reflected in two forms: popularity and knowledge creation. Extending the extant OSS literature, we theorize a contingent role of interproject connectedness. In particular, we posit three points: (1) an OSS project with more structural holes achieves higher popularity; (2) an OSS project with fewer structural holes yields higher knowledge creation; and (3) these two relationships are enhanced by an increase in project maturity. Using a dataset longitudinally collected from SourceForge.net, we found that OSS projects with widespread connectedness are more popular. This is especially so for those OSS projects in the mid-mature stage. We also found that OSS projects with a cohesive network achieve higher knowledge creation, irrespective of their maturity. Findings from our study can contribute to OSS literature by identifying OSS projects that are more likely to be successful.
KW - Interproject connectedness
KW - Knowledge creation
KW - Maturity
KW - Open source software
KW - Popularity
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85079266496&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jsis.2020.101598
DO - 10.1016/j.jsis.2020.101598
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85079266496
SN - 0963-8687
VL - 30
JO - Journal of Strategic Information Systems
JF - Journal of Strategic Information Systems
IS - 1
M1 - 101598
ER -