Determinants of open source software project success: A longitudinal study

  • Authors:

  • Chandrasekar Subramaniam;Ravi Sen;Matthew L. Nelson

  • Affiliations:

  • Department of Business Information Systems and Operations Management, Belk College of Business, University of North Carolina - Charlotte, United States;Department of Information and Operations Management, Mays Business School, Texas A&M University, United States;Department of Accounting and Business Information Systems, College of Business, Illinois State University, United States

  • Venue:
  • Decision Support Systems
  • Year:
  • 2009

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Abstract

In this paper, we investigate open source software (OSS) success using longitudinal data on OSS projects. We find that restrictive OSS licenses have an adverse impact on OSS success. On further analysis, restrictive OSS license is found to be negatively associated with developer interest, but is positively associated with the interest of non-developer users and project administrators. We also show that developer and non-developer interest in the OSS project and the project activity levels in any time period significantly affect the project success measures in subsequent time period. The implications of our findings for OSS research and practice are discussed.