
Management Papers
Document Type
Journal Article
Date of this Version
2016
Publication Source
Organization Science
Volume
27
Issue
6
Start Page
1472
Last Page
1487
DOI
10.1287/orsc.2016.1100
Abstract
Online communities play an increasingly important role in developing innovation. However, relatively little is known about the ways in which community affiliation influences how innovations and products generated in these communities are commercialized. By examining open source software (OSS) as an example of an innovation community and using both a quasi experiment and a longitudinal survey, I seek to shed light on this issue. In the quasi experiment, using the launch of the Apple App Store, I find a decreased propensity toward commercialization among individuals associated with online community innovation. I then examine the mechanisms for this decreased commercialization with a novel longitudinal survey of OSS community members. Despite the history of OSS as an anticommercial community, I do not find that anticommercial attitudes play a role in commercialization decisions. Instead, differences in entrepreneurial self-identity have large significant effects on the propensity to commercialize. I conclude with a discussion of the implications of these findings for the literatures on both entrepreneurial identity and community innovation.
Copyright/Permission Statement
The original, published article is available at: https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2016.1100
Keywords
entrepreneurship, commercialization, open source, community, identity
Recommended Citation
Mollick, E. (2016). Filthy Lucre? Innovative Communities, Identity, and Commercialization. Organization Science, 27 (6), 1472-1487. http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2016.1100
Date Posted: 19 February 2018
This document has been peer reviewed.