On the Benefits of Corporate Hackathons for Software Ecosystems – A Systematic Mapping Study

Abstract

Software companies have increasingly organised hackathons since the early 2010s. These time-bounded, intensive, collaborative and solution-oriented events enable companies to generate several ideas, some of which can be used to evolve their products and services. Hackathons are means to gather feedback from outside to innovate. Companies also follow such open innovation trend by raising software ecosystems via a platformisation process. They create platforms so that third parties can develop new software solutions and in doing so extend the current product portfolio. In this scenario, a hackathon can be seen as a strategy to support ecosystem evolution. Therefore, we decided to conduct a systematic mapping study to investigate the benefits that hackathons can provide to software ecosystems. This paper presents our analysis of twenty-seven papers on corporate hackathons in the software industry. As main findings, we (i) describe a set of fourteen social, technical and business benefits; as well as (ii) discuss how companies can leverage ecosystem health by conducting hackathons. We address the scarcity of research around the outcomes of corporate hackathons. Besides, we conclude that hackathons are alternative modes of production and innovation, which can catalyse a software ecosystem.