The role of openness in open collaboration: A focus on open-source software development projects

Open-source software development projects are well suited for exploring new ideas and acquiring knowledge from developers outside of the project. In this paper, we examine the impact of external developers on innovation in open-source software development from the perspective of organizational learning theory. We examine the roles of external and internal developers, who “explore” and “exploit,” respectively, on the innovation performance of 17 691 open-source software development projects whose data is stored in the GitHub platform. The results indicate that a multi-faceted strategy, in which the exploitation successfully supports the exploration, is most effective for their success. The results also indicate that the role of exploration decreases after the release of the software.