You scratch my back, we'll scratch yours: Exploring "open entrepreneurship" in a private-collective community

Networked Entrepreneurs

“…They receive help from others but also need to show that they themselves are willing to share ideas and contribute to solving others’ problems in the community. This kind of open entrepreneurship (Teigland et al, 2012), where entrepreneurs freely reveal intellectual property in return for feedback and help from the community, is characteristic of the entrepreneurs in the open source communities studied. Thus, the boundary between competition and cooperation between the communities’ entrepreneurs is blurred.…”

“…OSS communities are increasingly becoming arenas for entrepreneurs, individuals who found an organization for the purpose of obtaining economic benefits through the sale or use of his/her product and/or service (Shane & Venkataraman, 2000), to conduct business. In this article, we label entrepreneurs who conduct their business by identifying, cocreating, and realizing opportunities through shared resources and expertise in open source communities as open entrepreneurs (Teigland, Di Gangi, Yetis, & Huitfeldt, 2012). Since open entrepreneurs operate in a communal setting, they work and collaborate with members of the same open source community to a great extent.…”

“…As mentioned by Hienerth and Lettl (2011), previous literature on entrepreneurial networks has focused on ties to friends, family members, relatives, colleagues, experts, and venture capitalists while “less attention has been paid to social networks that emerge and center around a field or topic of shared interest, as is the case in user communities” (p. 178). Researchers investigating one such user community, open source communities, have revealed an increasing tendency of individuals to conduct entrepreneurial activities in and contribute resources to open source communities (Giuri, Rullani, & Torrisi, 2008; Gruber & Henkel, 2006; Haefliger, Jäger, & von Krogh, 2010; Piva, Rentocchini, & Rossi-Lamastra, 2012; Priem, Li, & Carr, 2012; Shah, 2005; Shah & Tripsas, 2007; Stam, 2010; Stam & Elfring, 2008; Teigland et al, 2012; Thistoll, 2011; von Krogh & Haefliger, 2010; Waguespack & Fleming, 2009). Being physically and organizationally dispersed, these entrepreneurs are involved in networked work, suggesting participation in multiple teams often for multiple purposes (Rainie & Wellman, 2012).…”