A summary of the results of our research study of the eZ Publish Community, a firm sponsored open source community, that was recently published in the academic journal, Information & Organization.

1. What did 4 Academics Learn from
Studying eZ Systems?
February 2014
Robin Teigland
Paul M. Di Gangi
Stockholm School of Economics
Sweden
Loyola University of Maryland
USA
Björn-Tore Flåten
Nicolas Pastorino
Elia Giovacchini
University of Agder
Norway
eZ Systems
Director Community
Stockholm University
Sweden

2. Presentation Structure
Start
Motivation of the Study
Opportunities and Challenges
Methodology
Key Findings
Conclusions
Finish

3. Motivation for Our Study
• eZ Systems wants to create a killer
community
• Research team interested in learning
how a firm can sponsor an Open
Source Software (OSS) community
• Discussions with eZ Share Director
led to the questions:
– How does the firm’s involvement
impact the innovation capacity of
the community?
– How is the firm’s learning ability
impacted by the involvement with
the community?

4. Opportunities and Challenges with Firmsponsored OSS Communities
 OSS communities as complementary
asset for firms with great potential for
firms to turn community outputs into
new service offerings
 BUT, potential for goal conflict between
the firm and the community since firms
in control
– Firm’s goal is to profit from the
investment
– Community’s goal is to improve the
shared technology

5. Definitions
Boundary management
The set of activities involved in defining,
negotiating, and protecting organizational
resources and domains of action as well as
managing external stakeholder relationships to
achieve organizational goals
Four boundary management logics:
1. Boundary of power
2. Boundary of identity
3. Boundary of competence
4. Boundary of transactional efficiency
These four cannot be studied in isolation as it is
their integrative management that influences
the community’s innovation capacity
Absorptive capacity
The firm’s ability to continuously transform
knowledge and ideas (e.g., learn) into new
innovations
Please see our paper for references: Teigland, R., Di Gangi, P., Flåten, B-T., Giovacchini, E., Pastorino, N. (2014). Balancing on
a tightrope: Managing the boundaries of a firm-sponsored OSS community and its impact on innovation and absorptive
capacity. Information & Organization, 24, 25–47.

6. Research Methodology
•
Case study of eZ Systems and its firm-sponsored OSS
community
•
19 semi-structured interviews
– 5 eZ employees
– 14 affiliated partners, entrepreneurs, or OSS hobbyists
– On average, interviewees were 34,9 years old, were male,
and held a minimum of an undergraduate degree
(typically Computer Science)
– Interviews lasting 45-120 minutes each
– All interviews recorded and transcribed
•
Literature-driven thematic analysis with coding of the
transcripts
6

7. Key Findings
1
eZ’s boundary management of the
community plays a crucial role in
community’s innovation capacity, with
Power having the most importance.
2
Importance of maintaining relationships
not only within eZ to understand and
absorb ideas and knowledge from
community but also with the larger OSS
and business community.
3
Community’s innovation capacity
directly impacts eZ’s learning ability.
Additionally, an integrative IT
platform supports the development of
community innovation capacity and
firm learning ability.

8. Findings
– Research Model from
Research Point of View

9. Conclusions
• The study extends our understanding of
boundary management of firm-sponsored
OSS communities.
• Firms interested in leveraging a firmsponsored community must balance on a
tightrope since tension between the firm’s
goals and the community’s goals.
Further research should investigate how firms that want to
sponsor or engage communities can adapt their internal
organizations to better fit with community-intensive
innovation activities.

10. Thank You!
If you have any questions or suggestions, please do not hesitate contacting us:
pdigangi@gmail.com
robin.teigland@hhs.se
bjorn-tore.flaten@uia.no
egi@fek.su.se