Citation:
Altman, Elizabeth J., and Frank Nagle. "Accelerating Innovation Through a Network of Ecosystems: What Companies Can Learn from One of the World's Largest Networks of Accelerator Labs." MIT Sloan Management Review 61, no. 4 (Summer 2020). View Details|
Article Management Science March 2019 Open Source Software and Firm Productivity |
Abstract
As open source software (OSS) is increasingly used as a key input by firms, understanding its impact on productivity becomes critical. This study measures the firm-level productivity impact of nonpecuniary (free) OSS and finds a positive and significant value-added return for firms that have an ecosystem of complementary capabilities. There is no such impact for firms without this ecosystem of complements. Dynamic panel analysis, instrumental variables, and a variety of robustness checks are used to address measurement error concerns and to add support for a more causal interpretation of the results. For firms with an ecosystem of complements, a 1% increase in the use of nonpecuniary OSS leads to an increase in value-added productivity of between 0.002% and 0.008%. This effect is smaller for larger firms, and the results indicate that prior research underestimates the amount of IT firms use.
Keywords: Software; Open Source Distribution; Performance Productivity; Information Technology; Strategy;
Citation:
Nagle, Frank. "Open Source Software and Firm Productivity." Management Science 65, no. 3 (March 2019): 1191–1215.
