Identities for upstream value creation: the case of open-source software communities

Purpose Financial rewards alone do not explain individuals' motivations to join and contribute to communities. In this article, we examine how identity shapes their innovation outcomes. We conceptualise identity as both a matter of positioning and a mechanism for creating a sense of belonging. Focusing specifically on software development as early inspirations for communities, the purpose of the article is to describe and discuss the role of identity in open-source software (OSS) innovations. Design/methodology/approach Data from four case studies were collected, including the perspectives of OSS communities, vendors and users. The various perspectives help to capture how a community is nested into its context and governance. Findings The article concludes that the community either has its primary function of providing an OSS aura to the OSS vendor, or its focus is on attracting developers and thereby contributing to the innovativeness of the OSS community. OSS community identities are mainly self-reflective, but also help to create rules of the community. Since it is the OSS vendor that communicates identities to external parties, the coherence and closeness between the OSS vendor and the community are important. Originality/value Through integrating literatures on organisational and branding identity, this article captures dual meanings across communities and contexts related to identity. It introduces the concepts of co-identity and spill-over identity to describe the relationship between communities and vendors as they seek to attract and retain contributors and users. Practically, the article highlights how communities should best be organised and promoted to remain innovative.