Setting the Stage:

Exploring the Sustainability of a

Private-collective Community

Robin Teigland, Ph.D.robin.teigland@hhs.se

Stockholm School of Economics

Paul M. Di Gangi, Ph.D.pdigangi@gmail.com

Loyola University Maryland

Zeynep Yetiszeynep.yetis@hhs.se

Stockholm School of Economics

Imperial CollegeJune 2012

Private

Collectivevs

Profit-based rational interests seek returns

from private goods with minimum effort,

i.e., free-riding on efforts of others. Tension

point

Collective interests expect

valuable time, effort, knowledge freely

available and contributed to community.

Private-collective community: The best of both worlds?

A network comprising individuals, organizations, and

interested parties contributing resources to accomplish a

personal and shared goal(Adapted from von Hippel & Von Krogh, 2003)

Research Questions

RQ1: Who are the

stakeholders of a private-

collective community and

what resources do they

contribute to the

community?

RQ2: What characterizes

the structure among the

different stakeholders of

a private-collective

community?

Theoretical lens: Stakeholder perspective (e.g., Freeman 1984)

using resource dependence theory (Pfeffer & Salancik 1978)

Research Methodology

Text Analysis and SNA • Developer mailing list

• Ohloh commit list

• OpenSimulator wiki

• SNS, blogs, homepages, etc.

• Twenty-one interviews

RQ1a: Who are the stakeholders?

14%

47%

18%

14%

2%

5%Academic

Entrepreneur

Hobbyist

Large firm

Other

SME

% of messages on

Developer Mailing

List (2007-2011)

emp

emp

Academics Entrepreneur Hobbyist Large Firm SME

Infrastructure

development

Applied

development Testing

Data

processing

Installation &

use

inventory state debug availabletype portability

user join osg processing openid

really obscures saving file metadata

servers night succeeded worlds asset

think pages osgrid users userserver

server scene shape mathematics inventoryserver

millions region guest center regionserver

region believe functions tree script

addresses physics guests wrote goods

different prerouting grid next class

inventoryserver core value approach executed

modules currency build computer assets

grid incoming sims rest assetbase

agent revision project attachments inform

service opencurrency allow asset cable

Academics Entrepreneur Hobbyist Large Firm SME

Application &

use

Application &

monetization

Installation &

use

Technical

infrastructure

Technical

development

hg we bulletsim updates admin

wifi state wiki sciencesim item

master established pm trust megaregions

info join documents testclient prims

scholar never bots queue viewer

robust night part adaptive megarion

timeout pages testclient voice trees

regionstore scene next dsg add

freeswitch region kins pronounced linkedin

university believe wise bots scalable

version obsolete outfit viewer names

line physics documentation simian inventory

connector core authority appearance root

lgpl modules install packet robot

migration currency users retransmit Sequence

Non-profit, Local Public, Federal Public, Research Institutes ommitted for presentation purposes

Period One (2007-2009) Period Two (2009-2011)

RQ1b: What resources do stakeholders contribute?

Entrepreneurs focus on real world applications, ensure

development activities are relevant to diverse members, and are

essential for coordinating members and managing conflict.

Academic

Entrepreneur

Hobbyist

Large Firm

Non-profit

Local Public

Federal Public

Research Inst

SME

Periphery

Teigland, Di Gangi, & Yetis 2012

RQ2a: What characterizes the community structure?

Teigland, Di Gangi, & Yetis 2012

RQ2b: What characterizes the community structure?

Network measures – Period two

Collapsed node structure -

Period two

Who remains active?

Influencers: Strategically influential

individuals (high eigenvector) who

bridge disparate groups (high structural

holes)

Who becomes inactive?

Middlemen: Those with high number of

ties (high degree) who bridge disparate

groups(high structural holes)

Identified New Concept: “Open Entrepreneurship”

Conclusions and Implications

• Fine-grained analysis reveals that PCCs are complex

social networks that mix a set of highly diverse

stakeholder groups with each group contributing different

resources to the community.

• As a PCC goes through different maturity phases, the

specific roles played by the different stakeholders

change as the community requires access to different

resources.

• Entrepreneurs are the driving force in the community

and as a result are the stakeholder group with the most

power, but their power is kept in check by

interdependencies with the other stakeholder groups

both in the core and in the periphery of the community.

“Open Entrepreneurship”

Entrepreneurs openly engaging in social capital building

activities through free revealing of intellectual property and

contribution of other resources with purpose of pursuing self

business-related interests while contributing to pursuit of

mutual goal.

Future Research:

What are the resources and capabilities necessary to

sustain a private-collective community over time?

How do private-collective

communities (PCC)

sustain themselves despite

the divergent interests

within the community?

* Who are the stakeholders of a

PCC and what resources do they

contribute to the community?

* What characterizes the structure

among the different stakeholders of

a PCC?

Theory: Resource Dependence

Study 1

* How do entrepreneurs contribute to

the building of social capital within

an PCC?

* How do PPCs contribute to the

building of an entrepreneur’s social

capital?

Theory: Social Capital

• What are the resources and

capabilities necessary for a PCC

to sustain itself?

Theory: Dynamic Capabilities

Our Research Strategy

Study 3