Knowledge coordination crossing firm boundaries in Open Source Communities: An empirical study in open source

Open Source is viewed as a real option for organizational knowledge production risk reduction during research & development activities. However, the Open Source community environment can lead to moral hazards where some participants simply take a free-ride and consume resources without contributing back to the community. The risk management methodologies between open source community and participants are not always obvious, and current management practices do not clearly explain the engagement issues beyond individuals. My research proposes a management methodology to address the complexities when organizations engage an open source community, highlighting the knowledge transfer issues involved in such practices. Through an empirical study of open source projects, I investigate knowledge transfer practices in open source project engagement for different participants and understand how these practices are identified and systematically managed. I present the results from two open source projects, involving several organizations, representing three unique types of participation. The analysis explicates the roles that participants play in the engagement with open source communities, and how the roles stratify across different leadership patterns. The paper describes participants\u27 practices used to engage to open source communities, which provides critical insight into understanding the complexities of knowledge transfer and the relationships between methods, process, and individual actions. In addition, the study of work practices in open source software development is also valuable to understand knowledge coordination in the context of large-scale, distributed projects between organizations that cross firm boundaries to explore and exploit knowledge in open communities