Week 8_Setia et al. (2012)_Jung Kwan Kim

Setia, Rajagopalan, and Sambamurthy, and Calantone (2012) point out that the contribution of peripheral developers in open-source software projects has not been well understood. The authors in this study attempt to reveal the impact of peripheral developers, in comparison with core developers, on product quality and diffusion and the moderating effect of OSS product life cycle.

The authors find that peripheral developers endow a greater impact on the quality assessment because they supply independent, novel, and unique insights for detecting bugs in the projects. Peripheral developers also contribute to expedite the product awareness and adoption owing to their interpersonal network and word-of-mouth communication; since the personal network of peripheral developers does not suffer from institutional influences or corporate promotions, the information shared through the network tends to receive better credibility, leading better exposure and adoption for potential users.

Interestingly, the positive impact of peripheral developers is not supported for quality enhancement in the study’s empirical analysis. The authors suggest, a larger project may require complex coordination efforts which may prevent active participation of peripheral developers. Also, the lack of efficient coordination mechanism can be another culprit to accommodate geographically dispersed contributions from the developers.

A mature product may represent that its OSS product has been well managed with high quality. This signaling effect can be a good explanation for the authors’ findings: the participation of peripheral developers at a mature stage influences positively on quality assessment, product awareness, and product adoption greater than at earlier stages.

In conclusion, the authors show that the contribution of peripheral developers takes up a significant portion of an OSS outcome, especially combined with the moderating effect of project life cycle. Strategically using this dynamic is a mandate for an OSS organization or a corporate, which aims to leverage the synergy based on the volunteering dedication of peripheral developers.