Selective revealing in open innovation processes: The case of embedded Linux

This paper provides a quantitative study (N = 268) of patterns of free revealing of firm-developed innovations within embedded Linux, a type of open source software (OSS). I find that firms, without being obliged to do so, contribute many of their own developments back to public embedded Linux code, eliciting and indeed receiving informal development support from other firms. That is, they perform a part of their product development open to the...