Acceptance of Monetary Rewards in Open Source Software Development

34 Pages Posted: 4 Sep 2020

See all articles by Sandeep Krishnamurthy

Sandeep Krishnamurthy

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Shaosong Ou

University of Washington

Arvind K Tripathi

The University of Kansas; University of Auckland Business School

Date Written: July 26, 2020

Abstract

The open source software (OSS) movement thrives on innovation and volunteer effort of developers. Scholars have expressed widespread concern about the sustainability of the OSS movement due to high levels of volunteerism. In this paper, we address a central challenge to the sustainability of OSS- developers’ acceptance of monetary rewards. We strive to explain why some OSS developers accept monetary rewards and others do not. Viewed through the theoretical lens of the private-collective innovation model (Von Hippel and Von Krogh 2003, 2006), this allows us to describe when developers will accept private financial rewards. Our main research objective is to clearly map the web of relationships between causal antecedents, and developers’ acceptance behavior. Using a unique dataset that combines survey and behavioral measures, we find that- a) intention to accept monetary rewards mediates the impact of motivational elements on developers’ acceptance of monetary rewards; b) intrinsic and extrinsic motivations positively affect their intention to accept monetary rewards, community motivation negatively impacts intention and ideological motivation does not affect the intention to accept rewards and c) these effects are obtained even after inclusion of several control variables. The theoretical and managerial implications of our work are described.

Keywords: Open Source Software, Monetary Rewards

Suggested Citation

Krishnamurthy, Sandeep and Ou, Shaosong and Tripathi, Arvind K, Acceptance of Monetary Rewards in Open Source Software Development (July 26, 2020). Research Policy, Forthcoming, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3660989 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3660989

Sandeep Krishnamurthy

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Shaosong Ou

University of Washington ( email )

Box 353200
Seattle, WA 98195-3200
United States

Arvind K Tripathi (Contact Author)

The University of Kansas ( email )

1654 Naismith Dr
Lawrence, KS 66045
United States

University of Auckland Business School ( email )

12 Grafton Rd
Private Bag 92019
Auckland, 1010
New Zealand

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