Open Source firms: from community to business

A large body of literature is now addressing the Open Source (OS) phenomenon. Economic scholars have deeply investigated the incentives of people working within OS community projects; the software production models in absence of explicit hierarchical structures; the successful dissemination of OS programs in environments dominated by proprietary standards; the peculiarities in the management of intellectual property within the OS framework. Theoretical contributions have coupled with the collection of extensive empirical evidence mainly through surveys taken on individual developers. Nowadays a new trend is shaping the OS movement: more and more firms are entering the market by offering software solutions based on the new paradigm (Open Source firms).