Preventing Others from Commercializing Your Innovation: Evidence from Creative Commons Licenses

TL;DR

This paper investigates why innovators in online communities, specifically in 3D-printable design, impose restrictions on commercialization through Creative Commons licenses, highlighting factors like reputation and reuse.

Contribution

It provides empirical evidence on the motivations behind imposing restrictive licenses in digital innovation communities, focusing on reputation and reuse effects.

Findings

Innovators with higher reputation are more likely to restrict commercialization.

Reusing others' contributions increases the likelihood of imposing restrictions.

Restrictions can impact the overall usefulness and collaborative potential of online innovation communities.

Abstract

Online innovation communities are an important source of innovation for many organizations. While contributions to such communities are typically made without financial compensation, these contributions are often governed by licenses such as Creative Commons that may prevent others from building upon and commercializing them. While this can diminish the usefulness of contributions, there is limited work analyzing what leads individuals to impose restrictions on the use of their work. In this paper, we examine innovators imposing restrictive licenses within the 3D-printable design community Thingiverse. Our analyses suggest that innovators are more likely to restrict commercialization of their contributions as their reputation increases and when reusing contributions created by others. These findings contribute to innovation communities and the growing literature on property rights in digital markets.