Internal boundaries between information systems divisions have traditionally caused friction and frustration, and negatively affected IT staff job satisfaction. Adopting open source development principles and processes within a corporate environment, what has been labeled ‘inner source,’ is now part of a larger management strategy to break down silos and promote innovation, collaboration, cooperation and communication across divisions of an organization. In this article we argue that inner source emphasizes the importance of relationships between developers and teams interacting across intra-organizational boundaries. We posit that inner source helps to create social capital, which in turn links to higher levels of job satisfaction. We use a sequential mixed-methods approach to test a theoretical model by combining quantitative survey data collected at one IT organization with qualitative data based on interviews with professionals from six organizations that adopted inner source. The results suggest that employees who participate in inner source projects develop more social interaction ties with others and have higher levels of shared understanding of software projects. Furthermore, we confirm that social interaction ties and a shared understanding link to a higher degree of trust. Finally, this study provides evidence that social capital mediates the link between participation in inner source and job satisfaction, implying that an inner source strategy can offer benefits to organizations. Enriched with the findings from the qualitative interviews, we then identify a number of implications for managers.

Digital transformation is here to stay. With the emergence of new digital innovations and diverse and rich data sources, only those organisations that can adapt faster and make better, quicker decisions will become more competitive. Yet, being a first mover is only the start of the transformation process. Organisations need to address and implement digital strategies to manage and sustain a digital transformation in order to stay with, or ahead of, their competition. In this article, we outline some of the key challenges associated with researching digital transformations within the information systems (IS) field and stress the importance of shifting the focus on how digital transformations are managed and sustained. To explore this further, we launched a Special Issue on “Managing and Sustaining Digital Transformations” and received a large volume of submissions. After a series of reviews and revisions, we were delighted to unearth four excellent articles on this important topic. Our hope with this Special Issue is to improve researchers’ abilities to identify the importance of managing and sustaining digital transformations and to encourage them to build on these contributions to better unpack the digital transformation process for the future.

Crowdfunding projects have been the subject of contrasting narratives. To many, they are the antithesis of predatory bottom-line business ventures, and to others, they are an under-regulated vehicle for immature, or unscrupulous project owners to exploit inexperienced and vulnerable investors. These differences are significant, given many use crowdfunding to build public awareness and project a positive image. We use the myth of Prometheus – the Greek god associated with “defiant progress” and technological advancement – as a sensitising lens to build a set of competing, dialectic archetypes. We then apply these archetypes through a Hegelian dialectic analysis of three high-profile crowdfunding campaigns. The overarching contribution of the study is that it provides a foundation for discussion of the positive and negative narratives surrounding crowdfunded project owners and explicates the limitations of crowdfunding as an enabler of positive systemic change. The dialectic approach provides a systematic means of identifying the essence of disagreement between narratives. While it may be too early to predict the outcomes for emerging technology-driven initiatives such as crowdfunding, the use of myth offers a sophisticated means to look for “rhyming” phenomena, where the phenomena at play are similar to the grand frailties of humankind throughout history.

Software development requires software developers to share knowledge and solve problems together. Although researchers have considered the business and technical knowledge germane to performing software development tasks, empirical studies investigating business and technical advice networks on problem-solving competence is scarce. Using social network theory , we argue that software developers must be embedded for knowledge brokering within and across business and technical advice connectedness for improving problem-solving competence. Moreover, we argue that contact quality matters in increasing or decreasing individual problem-solving competence. We present data collected via an online survey from 153 respondents in a professional software organisation. Our findings suggest that software developers who engage in knowledge brokering in business and technical advice connectedness will increase problem-solving competence in the software development effort. Our findings also reveal no significant effect of contact quality between these advice networks and problem-solving competence. We discuss our findings’ implications for theory and practice.

Context Inner source software development (ISSD) has been viewed as an alternative approach in which organisations adopt open source software development (OSSD) practices and exploit its benefits internally. Objective In this paper, we aim to provide an extensive review of current research on ISSD and to establish a research agenda on this domain. Method The review is primarily performed using a systematic literature review protocol. Results We identified, critically evaluated and integrated the findings of 37 primary studies, describing 25 empirical research papers, 10 frameworks/methods, models and tools to support the implementation of inner source, as well as a set of benefits and challenges associated with ISSD. Conclusion This study presents four main contributions. First, the study provides an in-depth review of ISSD to date, i.e. the evolution of research across inner source, contributions of existing research developments, and theories, models and frameworks used to study inner source. Second, our review applies the OSSD approach framework as the lens to analyse ISSD. Third, the review updates the key challenges associated with ISSD from a management perspective. The final contribution is the establishment of a research agenda to advance knowledge on ISSD.

Open Source software (OSS) has been highly prevalent in both practice and research. Given the value and effectiveness of OSS development to date, practitioners are keen to replicate these practices inside their respective corporations. This application of OSS practices inside the confines of a corporate entity has been coined Inner Source Software (ISS). While ISS presents many benefits, little is known about the opposing tensions that arise as a result of transitioning from a closed to an open software development environment. Such environments are increasingly under pressure to embrace more open and collaborative principles internally, while simultaneously managing operations in a tight and controlled manner. As part of this study, we conducted 20 interviews with international ISS expects across 15 global organisations. We uncover 13 core tensions that arise from the adoption of open principles in closed software practices. Based on these emerging results, we present new insights on the implementation of strategies to overcome competing tensions from openness in software development. We present some recommendations, which also call for fundamentally new research directions.

Given the value and effectiveness of open source software development to date, practitioners are keen to replicate these practices inside their respective corporations. This application of open source practices inside the confines of a corporate entity has been coined inner source software development. However, while organisations have found ways to directly benefit from revenue streams as a result of leveraging open source practices internally, the current research on inner source is scattered among different areas. Thus gaining clarity on the state-of-the-art in inner source research is challenging. In particular, there is no systematic literature review of known research to date on inner source. We address this challenge by presenting a systematic literature review that identifies, critically evaluates and integrates the findings of 29 primary studies on inner source. Case study approach is the common research approach undertaken in the area. We also identified 8 frameworks/methods, models and tools proposed in the literature to support inner source, as well as a set of benefits and challenges associated with inner source. We envision future work to perform deeper analysis and synthesis on the empirical research on inner source software development.

Crowdsourcing initiatives benefit from tapping into diversity. A vast plethora of disparate individuals, organizations, frameworks and skillsets can all play a role in sourcing solutions to a challenge. Nevertheless, while crowdsourcing has become a pervasive phenomenon, there is a paucity of research that addresses how the crowdsourcing process is measured. Whereas research has advanced various taxonomies of crowdsourcing none to date have specifically addressed the issue of measuring either specific stages of the crowdsourcing process or the process as a whole. As a first step towards achieving this goal, this research-in-progress paper examines crowdsourcing at the operational level with a view towards (i) identifying the parts of the process (ii) identifying what can be measured and (iii) categorising operational metrics to facilitate deployment in practice. The taxonomy advanced is overarching in nature and can be deployed across disciplines. Furthermore, the preliminary taxonomy presented will offer practitioners a comprehensive list of metrics that will enable them to facilitate comparison across various crowdsourcing initiatives.

The emergence of open source software (OSS) as a form of peer production and innovation challenges theories of organisation and strategy due to its non-reliance on traditional governance mechanisms to organise production. OSS requires firms to rethink the processes that facilitate value creation and capture. The objective of this paper is to theorise how firms create and capture value from OSS. We derive a model from extant research and refine it through the study of three inter-organisational networks. The findings reveal how a firm's ability to access a value network of complementors is crucial for effective value creation and capture. Two types of networks are evident: a high-density network of familiar partners and a low-density network of multiple, often unfamiliar, partners. Leveraging these networks depends on the level of commitment, volume of knowledge exchange and the alignment of objectives among participant firms. Effective governance is revealed as critical for creating and capturing value within both types of network; and depends on both formal and informal mechanisms.