@article{3f4e7bed827b4a52b7d4c7f5f77f9bb6,
title = "The role of digital artefacts in early stages of distributed innovation processes",
abstract = "This paper offers insights on how digital artefacts foster coordination of individuals in distributed innovation projects by limiting the divergence of team members{\textquoteright} representations of the project. This role is particularly important when coordination mechanisms such as leadership and modularity show some limits. Using distributed innovation in open-source software as a setting, we develop and test the hypotheses that (1) the release of initial code in open-source software projects limits the divergence of team members{\textquoteright} representations and (2) limiting divergence of team members{\textquoteright} representations triggered by initial code release implies a higher probability of project survival, a non-trivial goal in such a setting. To test our hypotheses, we draw on a dataset of 5,703 open-source software projects registered on SourceForge.net. Both our hypotheses are supported, pointing towards fruitful directions for expanding research on the way distributed innovation processes are carried out when digital artefacts are involved.",
keywords = "Architecture, Artefact, Distributed innovation, Modularity, Open source software, Tacit coordination",
author = "Becker, {Markus C.} and Francesco Rullani and Francesco Zirpoli",
note = "Funding Information: Credits : We are thankful to Salvatore Torrisi, Paola Giuri and the coordinators of the project {\textquoteleft}Productivity Estimation and Skills Assessment of FLOSS Projects{\textquoteright} and Rishab Ghosh, Paul David, Jesus Gonzales-Barahona and W.E. Steinmueller for granting us the access to the data in the SourceForge Research Data Archive developed and maintained by the University of Notre Dame (IN, US; see Madey, 2010, and http:// zerlot.cse.nd.edu/). We thank Carliss Baldwin, Ann Majchrzak, Stefano Brusoni, Eugenia Cacciatori, Alberto Cammozzo, Lars Frederiksen, Joachim Henkel, Keld Laursen, Inna Liubareva, Marion Poetz, Paolo Spagnoletti, Lorenzo Zirulia, the participants in the seminars held at Stanford (SCANCOR), Copenhagen Business School, ESSEC, Bayes Business School (formerly Cass), KU Leuven, University of Lugano (USI), University of Jena & Max Planck Institute, LUISS, Polytechnic of Milan, Vienna University of Economics and Business, and the participants in the Academy of Management and DRUID Conferences, in the International User Innovation Workshop and in the Open Innovation Conference at Copenhagen Business School, and the Editor and the Reviewers for their valuable comments. We are grateful to the OSS developers and project managers who gave their time to answer our post-hoc interviews. Francesco Rullani gratefully acknowledges the support by the programme PRIN 2010–2011 CUP: B81J12002690008. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2021",
year = "2021",
month = dec,
doi = "10.1016/j.respol.2021.104349",
language = "English",
volume = "50",
journal = "Research Policy",
issn = "0048-7333",
publisher = "Elsevier",
number = "10",
}