From Software to Hardware: The Changing Technology of Open Source

Recent technological change has also had an impact on open source innovation: products are, in fact, becoming more and more intelligent and often include a software 'soul' embedded in a body made of 'dumb' material. Despite our understanding of open source systems, the evidence that has been produced in scholarly publications and upon which the theory has been conceived is mainly about software (e.g., Linux) and service businesses (e.g. Wikipedia). Interestingly, however, a growing number of cases of open source hardware are now emerging. Social hardware or open source hardware (OSH) is indeed entering industries ranging from synthesizers to MP3 players, from guitar amplifiers to high-end voice-over-IP phone routers, mobile phones and microcontrollers .A large number of hardware inventors working on these product categories have begun to enjoy freely publishing their specifications. Despite its growing diffusion and relevance to business, the newly emerging topic of OSH has received limited attention in the literature. In our contribution, we specify the characteristics of OSH compared to OSS. We then review the literature on open innovation, attempting to identify what might be relevant to OSH as well as some unanswered questions in this context. Next, we turn to the empirical evidence on how OSH is developed and how the leader of an OSH platform can sustain itself over time from an economic standpoint. More specifically, we focus on a leading case of OSH: Arduino, the first open-source microcontroller product. We conclude our work by addressing the managerial implications, limits, and future drivers for research in this field