Factors affecting open technological innovation in open source software companies in Korea
Junseok Hwang
Professor, Technology Management, Economics and Policy Program (TEMEP), College of Engineering, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
Eungdo Kim
Technology Management, Economics and Policy Program (TEMEP), College of Engineering, Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea
Seunghyun Kim
Technology Management, Economics and Policy Program (TEMEP), College of Engineering, Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea
PP: 279 - 290
Abstract
Open source software (OSS) is a rapidly growing method of collaborative technology development. Yet there has been little quantitative research into the specific innovativeness of the OSS industry that seeks to address the question of whether such collaborative processes are also correlated with increased innovative activity.
Using survey data from Korean OSS firms, this paper seeks to analyze the decisive factors in the open technological innovation activity of the OSS industry. Building on this analysis, we discuss the policy significance of OSS in fostering capacity intensification of technological innovation.
Keywords
open source software (OSS), open innovation, technological innovation factor, product innovation, process innovation, network
Article Text
Open innovation emphasizes the importance of using external sources of knowledge in a company's innovation processes (Chesbrough 2003). The use of outside sources is not new, but a growing number of companies in recent years have learnt how to successfully capitalize on other companies' research (West & Gallagher 2004). A key example of Open Innovation is Open Source Software (OSS). OSS, while acknowledging the initial code-writer's contribution, allows the modified source code to be redistributed to other companies (Perens 1999; Raymond 2004).
There has been a great deal of interest and discussion on this topic, but no research has yet sought to quantitatively examine the open innovativeness of the OSS industry. This paper thus seeks to analyze the factors affecting Open Innovation activity of the OSS industry in Korea using a logistic regression model over survey data. First, we shall demonstrate the open innovativeness of the OSS industry by observing the effect of its open innovative characteristics on technological innovation. Second, we demonstrate the policy significance of fostering Korean OSS industry and consolidating its technological innovation competence by analyzing factors affecting its technological innovation.
Following the OECD's Oslo Manual classification of technological innovation (OECD 1996), we use technologically new product innovation, technologically improved product, and technological process innovation as dependent variables. Commonly examined innovative factors (company size, company age, market structure) and characteristics of the OSS industry (networks, core developer's weight) are used as explanatory variables. This research seeks to further elaborate these factors by dividing networks into four different categories (domestic, global, state-supported, and outside developer).
The paper proceeds as follows: Section 2 introduces theories and a model for the Open Technology Innovation activity of the OSS industry. Section 3 explains the data, methodology, and variables. Section 4 gives the results; a conclusion and policy implications are given in Section 5.
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