Selective Revealing in Open Innovation Processes:The Case of Embedded Linux

This paper provides a quantitative study (N = 268) of patterns of free revealing offirm-developed innovations within embedded Linux, a type of open source software (OSS). Ifind that firms, without being obliged to do so, contribute many of their own developmentsback to public embedded Linux code, eliciting and indeed receiving informal developmentsupport from other firms. That is, they perform a part of their product development open tothe public—an unthinkable idea for traditionally-minded managers. Such openness obviouslyentails the challenge of protecting one’s intellectual property...