SETTING THE STAGE- - -

EXPLORING THE SUSTAINABILITY OF A PRIVATE-COLLECTIVE COMMUNITY

Robin TeiglandStockholm School of Economics

Paul M. Di GangiLoyola University Maryland

Zeynep YetisStockholm School of Economics

Redondo Beach, CA, March 2012International Sunbelt Social Network Conference

Introduction & Research Questions

Research Setting & Methodology

Research Findings

Conclusions

Thank You!

Overview

Teigland, Di Gangi, & Yetis 2012

The Firm

The Collective

vs

E.g., Microsoft~ Built by employees within

organizational boundaries

E.g., Linux~ Built by users and distributed freely regardless of affiliation

Models of Knowledge Creation

Teigland, Di Gangi, & Yetis 2012

“Open source” communities expanding beyond software

Teigland, Di Gangi, & Yetis 2012

Community and firm share experiences and knowledge to

co-create value

Community is complementary asset to be leveraged and combined with

firm’s internal assets to deliver competitive solutions

(Dahlander & Wallin 2006)

Private-collective Community (von Hippel & von Krogh 2003)

Teigland, Di Gangi, & Yetis 2012

But there’s an inherent tension...

Private ModelDistribution of returns

and delegation of value creation solely to

organization

Collective ModelOpenness and free

distribution of intellectual ideas for common or

public good

VS

Teigland, Di Gangi, & Yetis 2012

Our Primary Research Purpose

How do private-collective communities sustain themselves despite the divergent

interests within the community?   Teigland, Di Gangi, & Yetis 2012

Research Questions

(RQ1) What are the resources necessary to sustain a private-collective community?

(RQ2) Who are the stakeholders of a private-collective community and what resources do

they contribute to the community?

(RQ3) What characterizes the structure among the different stakeholders of a private-collective

community? Teigland, Di Gangi, & Yetis 2012

Based on stakeholder perspective to resource dependence theory

Introduction & Research Questions

Research Setting & Methodology

Research Findings

Conclusions

Thank You!

Overview

Teigland, Di Gangi, & Yetis 2012

Teigland, Di Gangi, & Yetis 2012

More than just developers…

Teigland, Di Gangi, & Yetis 2012

Text Analysis and SNA using….1) Developer Mailing List2) Ohloh Commit List3) OpenSimulator Wiki4) SNS, blogs, homepages, etc.5) 21 Interviews

Teigland, Di Gangi, & Yetis 2012

Conducting an interview

Methods

Two periodsAug 2007 – Sep 2009Oct 2009 – Oct 2011

Introduction & Research Questions

Research Setting & Methodology

Research Findings

Conclusions

Thank You!

Overview

Teigland, Di Gangi, & Yetis 2012

(RQ1) What are the resources necessary to sustain a private-collective community?

Teigland, Di Gangi, & Yetis 2012

(RQ2) Who are the stakeholders of a private-collective community and what resources do

they contribute to the community?

% of messages Developers Mailing List

(2007-2011)

% of people making commits on Ohloh Commit List (2007-2011)

Teigland, Di Gangi, & Yetis 2012

Academic

Entrepreneur

Hobbyist

Large firm

Other

SME

Academic

Entrepreneur

Hobbyist

Large firm

SME

(RQ3) What characterizes the structure among the different stakeholders of a private-collective

community?

AcademicEntrepreneurHobbyistLarge FirmNon-profitLocal PublicFederal PublicResearch InstSMEPeriphery

Teigland, Di Gangi, & Yetis 2012

(RQ3) What characterizes the structure among the different stakeholders of a private-collective

community? The “Old Guard” and the Rising New Members

Member Turnover from Period One (2007-2009) to Period Two (2009-2011)Teigland, Di Gangi, & Yetis 2012

Introduction & Research Questions

Research Setting & Methodology

Research Findings

Conclusions

Thank You!

Overview

Teigland, Di Gangi, & Yetis 2012

Conclusions

Teigland, Di Gangi, & Yetis 2012

• Individual members supply the resources to the community, but it is the collective interactions that create the capabilities necessary to sustain the community.

• Private-collective communities are complex social networks that mix a high variety of stakeholder groups e.g. academics, large firm employees,hobbyists, with each group contributing different resources.

• Entrepreneurs are the driving force sustaining the community, despite turnover among them.

Implications

Teigland, Di Gangi, & Yetis 2012

Limitations and Future Research

Teigland, Di Gangi, & Yetis 2012

• Focus on one community only.

• Primarily analyzed quantity and not quality of contributions on mailing list and commit list

• OpenSimulator is more than a developer community – include the rest of the ecosystem?

• Event analysis? How does the OpenSimulator Community respond to external and internal shocks? Focus on tensions?

• Bibliometrics and webometrics for additional insights?

Teigland, Di Gangi, & Yetis 2012