Business-driven open source software development: Motivational aspects of collective design

Abstract

Independence and a fancy company image are reasons why companies choose to use open source software instead of proprietary software. A challenge for companies outside the software domain arises if the desired software is not yet available. Established collective development models for such cases are missing. An important question in this context is how to motivate a collective of developers to pursue the goals of the company. In the present study a motivational system is outlined which can serve companies and other institutions in the process of how to coordinate such a collective. This collective becomes part of the resources used to implement the requirements of the business model, in this case the provision of the right software solution. Main insights are that the initiating company has to analyze and adhere to collective etiquette and should integrate a motivational context into their business model.