Motivations that boost effort and lasting contributions in open source
Motivation and Contribution in Open Source Software: A Meta-Analytic Investigation
Human-Computer InteractionSoftware Engineering
Summary
People contribute to open source software for many reasons, but studies don't always agree about what motivates them or how motivation relates to the amount of work done. The authors combined results from 41 studies and found that all types of motivation they looked at help people keep wanting to contribute and actually put in effort. They also found that enjoying the work doesn’t always mean more work is done, and money does not reduce enjoyment. Knowing this helps platforms encourage contributors to turn their good intentions into real contributions.
What this means in practice
- •For open source platform managers: Design platform features that enhance contributors’ intentions to boost actual coding and collaboration activity.
- •For community engagement teams: Tailor reward systems to maintain contributor enjoyment and encourage ongoing participation without harming motivation.
Authors
Parisa Omidmand, Saeed Nosratabadi
Abstract
Research on why people contribute to open source software (OSS) and related open collaboration platforms spans more than two decades, but its findings conflict, and studies often treat the work people contribute and their intention to keep contributing as interchangeable. Drawing on self-determination theory and motivation crowding theory, we meta-analyze 41 studies. The main analysis pools 178 correlations of eight antecedents with contribution effort and continuance intention from 29 independent samples (N = 9,632). Seven antecedents relate positively to effort, all eight relate positively to intention, and each relates at least as strongly to intention as to effort. Contrary to a common assumption, intrinsic motivation is not more strongly related to effort than extrinsic motivation, but its gap between intention and effort is larger. Reputation relates to effort mainly on platforms with a reputation system, and we find no sign that monetary rewards crowd out enjoyment. The findings inform how platforms can turn contributors' intentions into work.