Participating in Open Source Software Projects : The Role of Empowerment

As a community-based innovation, Open Source Software (OSS) development intrigues researchers and practitioners, especially on why OSS projects succeed with light coordination and control mechanisms. In the view that the viability and sustainability of an OSS project rely on individuals’ contribution and engagement, we investigate how the psychological feelings of empowerment derived from the assessments of OSS tasks affect participants’ participation outcomes. In particular, we posit that empowerment can lead directly to participants’ task performance and satisfaction in OSS projects. In addition, empowerment’s effect on task performance and satisfaction can also be mediated by task effort. The research model is supported by data collected from 233 OSS participants. Theoretical contributions and managerial implications of this study are discussed