Since Teece's seminal paper explaining who were the gainers from technological
innovation, increased globalization and the information and communication
technology revolution have brought new ways for firms to organize
and appropriate from innovation. A new more open model of innovation
suggests that firms can benefit from sources of innovation that stem
from outside the firm. The central theme of this paper is how firms
try to unlock communities as complementary assets. These communities
exist outside firm boundaries beyond ownership or hierarchical control.
Because of practices developed by communities to protect their work,
firms need to assign individuals to work in these communities in
order to gain access to developments and, to an extent, influence
the direction of the community. Using network analysis we show that
some software firms sponsor individuals to act strategically within
a free and open source software (FOSS) community. Firm sponsored
individuals interact with more individuals than interact with them,
and also they seek to interact with central individuals in the community.
However, we can see differences in how individuals interact, depending
on whether their affiliation is with a dedicated FOSS firm or an
incumbent in the software industry. Apparently, some firm managers
believe they need `a man on the inside' to be able to gain access
to communities.
%0 Journal Article
%1 Dahlander2006/10
%A Dahlander, Linus
%A Wallin, Martin W.
%D 2006/10
%J Research Policy
%K Complementary Free Open Social and assets; innovation; network open software; source theory
%N 8
%P 1243-1259
%T A man on the inside: Unlocking communities as complementary assets
%V 35
%X Since Teece's seminal paper explaining who were the gainers from technological
innovation, increased globalization and the information and communication
technology revolution have brought new ways for firms to organize
and appropriate from innovation. A new more open model of innovation
suggests that firms can benefit from sources of innovation that stem
from outside the firm. The central theme of this paper is how firms
try to unlock communities as complementary assets. These communities
exist outside firm boundaries beyond ownership or hierarchical control.
Because of practices developed by communities to protect their work,
firms need to assign individuals to work in these communities in
order to gain access to developments and, to an extent, influence
the direction of the community. Using network analysis we show that
some software firms sponsor individuals to act strategically within
a free and open source software (FOSS) community. Firm sponsored
individuals interact with more individuals than interact with them,
and also they seek to interact with central individuals in the community.
However, we can see differences in how individuals interact, depending
on whether their affiliation is with a dedicated FOSS firm or an
incumbent in the software industry. Apparently, some firm managers
believe they need `a man on the inside' to be able to gain access
to communities.
@article{Dahlander2006/10,
abstract = {Since Teece's seminal paper explaining who were the gainers from technological
innovation, increased globalization and the information and communication
technology revolution have brought new ways for firms to organize
and appropriate from innovation. A new more open model of innovation
suggests that firms can benefit from sources of innovation that stem
from outside the firm. The central theme of this paper is how firms
try to unlock communities as complementary assets. These communities
exist outside firm boundaries beyond ownership or hierarchical control.
Because of practices developed by communities to protect their work,
firms need to assign individuals to work in these communities in
order to gain access to developments and, to an extent, influence
the direction of the community. Using network analysis we show that
some software firms sponsor individuals to act strategically within
a free and open source software (FOSS) community. Firm sponsored
individuals interact with more individuals than interact with them,
and also they seek to interact with central individuals in the community.
However, we can see differences in how individuals interact, depending
on whether their affiliation is with a dedicated FOSS firm or an
incumbent in the software industry. Apparently, some firm managers
believe they need `a man on the inside' to be able to gain access
to communities.},
added-at = {2008-08-31T18:03:07.000+0200},
author = {Dahlander, Linus and Wallin, Martin W.},
biburl = {https://www.bibsonomy.org/bibtex/20982f9933447f488d0966b9b4c99e73d/jomiralb},
description = {Old biblio},
interhash = {745e48afa6023fc9dc36a7c701c1d8b2},
intrahash = {0982f9933447f488d0966b9b4c99e73d},
journal = {Research Policy},
keywords = {Complementary Free Open Social and assets; innovation; network open software; source theory},
number = 8,
owner = {oriol},
pages = {1243-1259},
timestamp = {2008-08-31T18:03:11.000+0200},
title = {A man on the inside: Unlocking communities as complementary assets},
volume = 35,
year = {2006/10}
}