Systematic Literature Review of Commercial Participation in Open Source Software

TL;DR

This systematic review analyzes 92 studies on how and why companies participate in open source software, covering motivations, contribution models, and impacts, highlighting key research challenges and future directions.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive synthesis of existing research on corporate participation in OSS, categorizing motivations, contribution models, and impacts, and identifies research gaps and future directions.

Findings

Motivations are mainly economic, technological, and social.

Contribution models are categorized by objectives and community shaping.

Commercial participation influences OSS development processes.

Abstract

Open source software (OSS) has been playing a fundamental role in not only information technology but also our social lives. Attracted by various advantages of OSS, increasing commercial companies take extensive participation in open source development and have had a broad impact. This paper provides a comprehensive systematic literature review (SLR) of existing research on company participation in OSS. We collected 92 papers and organized them based on their research topics, which cover three main directions, i.e., participation motivation, contribution model, and impact on OSS development. We found the explored motivations of companies are mainly from economic, technological, and social aspects. Existing studies categorize companies' contribution models in OSS projects mainly through their objectives and how they shape OSS communities. Researchers also explored how commercial participation affects OSS development. We conclude with research challenges and promising research directions on commercial participation in OSS. This study contributes to a comprehensive understanding of commercial participation in OSS development.