The role of digital artefacts in early stages of distributed innovation processes

• Published in: Research policy Vol. 50; no. 10; p. 104349
• Main Authors: Becker, Markus C., Rullani, Francesco, Zirpoli, Francesco
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 01.12.2021
• Subjects: Architecture; Artefact; Distributed innovation; Modularity; Open source software; Tacit coordination; Artefact; Architecture; Tacit coordination; Modularity; Distributed innovation; Open source software
• ISSN: 0048-7333; 1873-7625
• DOI: 10.1016/j.respol.2021.104349

•Uses Open Source Software as a setting to test hypotheses on distributed innovation.•Finds that presence of initial artefacts limits distributed contributors’ divergence in product representations.•Finds that initial artefacts work as a coordination mechanism, fostering project survival.•Tests the hypotheses with an original econometric technique on 5703 open source projects. This paper offers insights on how digital artefacts foster coordination of individuals in distributed innovation projects by limiting the divergence of team members’ representations of the project. This role is particularly important when coordination mechanisms such as leadership and modularity show some limits. Using distributed innovation in open-source software as a setting, we develop and test the hypotheses that (1) the release of initial code in open-source software projects limits the divergence of team members’ representations and (2) limiting divergence of team members’ representations triggered by initial code release implies a higher probability of project survival, a non-trivial goal in such a setting. To test our hypotheses, we draw on a dataset of 5,703 open-source software projects registered on SourceForge.net. Both our hypotheses are supported, pointing towards fruitful directions for expanding research on the way distributed innovation processes are carried out when digital artefacts are involved.