Open source software is a collective term for different software licenses that give users access to the source code of the programs and thus allow them to develop the programs according to their needs. Because nobody can be excluded and because there is no rivalry in consumption, the open source...

Die vorliegende Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit der Frage, wie kommerzielle Unternehmen die Innovationskraft von Open Source Projekten nutzen können.Als Beispiele werden Red Hat und Netscape behandelt.

Open source software production is a successful new production model in which a public good is voluntarily provided. We argue that by studying this new production model we gain valuable insightfor organization theory beyond software production.(...)

This paper discusses the problems of social dilemmas arising if intangible firmspecific pool resources have to be supplied. The problem is not treated adequately in the dominant theories of the firm, transaction cost economics and the knowledge-based theory.(...)

Open source is a term for software published under licence that does not give any property rights to the developers. Recently, attempts have been made to explain open source as the result of the collaboration of purely self-interested, utility-maximizingindividuals.(...)

Open source software production is a highly successful innovation model. But it is, by far, not a singular case but rather one example of "virtual communities of innovation". The purpose of this paper is to inquire under which conditions the new innovation model might work in general...