What do we know about hackathon outcomes and how to support them? – a systematic literature review

Abstract

Hackathons are time-bounded events where participants gather in teams to develop projects that interest them. Such events have been adopted in various domains to generate innovative solutions, foster learning, build and expand communities and to tackle civic and ecological issues. While research interest has also grown subsequently, most studies focus on singular events in specific domains. A systematic overview of the current state of the art is currently missing. Such an overview is however crucial to further study the hackathon phenomenon, understand its underlying mechanisms and develop support for hackathon organizers, in particular related to the sustainability of hackathon outcomes. This paper fills that gap by reporting on the results of a systematic literature review thus providing an overview of potential hackathon outcomes, design aspects and connections between them that have been addressed in prior work. Our findings also outline gaps in prior work e.g. related to the lack of work focusing on hackathon outcomes other than hackathon projects.