The Digital Commons: Tragedy or Opportunity? A Reflection on the 50th Anniversary of Hardin's Tragedy of the Commons

Frank  Nagle

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Working Paper | HBS Working Paper Series | 2018

The Digital Commons: Tragedy or Opportunity? A Reflection on the 50th Anniversary of Hardin's Tragedy of the Commons

by Frank Nagle

Abstract

On the 50th anniversary of Garrett Hardin’s “The Tragedy of the Commons,” this article considers the benefits and potential downsides of the digital commons, which emerged well after Hardin wrote his seminal article. Unlike the physical world Hardin wrote about, the digital world is essentially infinitely abundant, which leads to a very different tragedy and many new opportunities.

Keywords: digital commons; Economics; Society; Transformation; Opportunities;

Language: English

Format: Print

13 pages

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Citation:

Nagle, Frank. "The Digital Commons: Tragedy or Opportunity? A Reflection on the 50th Anniversary of Hardin's Tragedy of the Commons." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 19-060, December 2018.

About the Author

Frank Nagle

Assistant Professor of Business Administration

Strategy

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Working Paper | 2019

The Impact of Professionals' Contributions to Online Knowledge Communities on Their Workplace Knowledge Work

Hila Lifshitz - Assaf and Frank Nagle

Knowledge work is becoming increasingly challenging as pace of change in the knowledge frontier is increasing. Organizations have created multiple mechanisms to minimize knowledge gaps and increase learning such internal training, mentorship programs as well as encouraging their professionals to exchange knowledge outside the boundaries of the organization. Reaching outside the organizational boundaries for knowledge exchange has changed dramatically in the last decade with the rise of online professionals communities. In the case of computer science and software engineering it has become a norm to learn and as questions that used to be kept within the boundaries of the organizations, externally, with a community of external professionals help answer and learn. It is less clear whether contributing to such online communities helps improve professionals’ knowledge work or becomes a competing or distracting force from their work place knowledge work. This is the empiric puzzle our study has set to explore. We conducted a mixed method study combining qualitative data from more than 100 interviews with software professionals with a unique quantitative dataset measuring software professionals’ code productivity in their workplace by the hour/every week for one to two years.

Keywords: open source; future of work; software development; knowledge work; online community; Learning; Knowledge Sharing; Software; Open Source Distribution; Performance Productivity;

Citation:
Lifshitz - Assaf, Hila, and Frank Nagle. "The Impact of Professionals' Contributions to Online Knowledge Communities on Their Workplace Knowledge Work." Working Paper, April 2019. View Details

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Working Paper | HBS Working Paper Series | 2019

Why Do User Communities Matter for Strategy?

Sonali K. Shah and Frank Nagle

User communities represent a unique organizing structure for the exchange of ideas and knowledge. They are organizations composed primarily of users working collaboratively, voluntarily, and with minimal oversight to freely and openly develop and exchange knowledge around a common artifact. The prevalence of user communities appears to be on the rise, as evidenced by communities across a variety of fields ranging from software to Legos to sports equipment. In this essay, we discuss how firms can benefit from working with user communities––that is, we discuss the opportunities for firms to leverage user communities as a source of open innovation. We theorize the conditions under which user communities will emerge and function and discuss the benefits that user communities can provide and the challenges they can create for firms, thereby illustrating the relevance and import of user communities to firms and the strategic management literature.

Keywords: strategic management; Knowledge Sharing; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Organizations; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Strategy;

Citation:
Shah, Sonali K., and Frank Nagle. "Why Do User Communities Matter for Strategy?" Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 19-126, June 2019. View Details

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Working Paper | HBS Working Paper Series | 2019

Government Technology Policy, Social Value, and National Competitiveness

Frank Nagle

This study seeks to better understand the impact that government technology procurement regulations have on social value and national competitiveness. To do this, it examines the impact of a change in France’s technology procurement policy that required government agencies to favor open source software (OSS) over proprietary software in an attempt to reduce costs creating an unexpected demand shock for OSS. Analysis using the rest of the EU as controls via difference-in-differences and synthetic control frameworks shows that this policy change led to an increase of nearly 600,000 OSS contributions per year from France, creating social value by increasing the availability and quality of free and open source software. Estimates indicate this would have cost paid software developers roughly $20 million per year to replicate. However, the open nature of such goods means that any country can reap the benefits of these efforts. Therefore, additional economic outcomes that enhance France’s competitiveness are also considered. The results show that within France, the regulation led to a 0.6%–5.4% yearly increase in companies that use OSS, a 9%–18% yearly increase in the number of IT-related startups, a 6.6%–14% yearly increase in the number of individuals employed in IT related jobs, and a 5%–16% yearly decrease in software-related patents. All of these outcomes help to increase productivity and competitiveness at the national level. In aggregate, these results show that changes in government technology policy that favor OSS can have a positive impact on both global social value and domestic national competitiveness.

Keywords: social value; competitiveness; Government Administration; Technology; Acquisition; Policy; Value;

Citation:
Nagle, Frank. "Government Technology Policy, Social Value, and National Competitiveness." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 19-103, March 2019. View Details

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The Digital Commons: Tragedy or Opportunity? A Reflection on the 50th Anniversary of Hardin's Tragedy of the Commons

Abstract

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