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CONSUMER CREATIVITY AS A JOURNEY TOWARD A MORAL DESTINY: AN INVESTIGATION OF THE FREE/OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE COMMUNITY by Tiebing Shi A thesis submitted to the School of Business In conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Queen‘s University Kingston, Ontario, Canada November 2010 Copyright © Tiebing Shi, 2010 Abstract Drawing on Berman‘s (1972, 1988) political-cultural view of creativity, this thesis contextualizes consumer creativity in the context of a consumer community wrought with paradoxes and conflicts. Adopting a netnography methodology and empirically examining how individual free/open source software (FOSS) community members interpret their own creative activities, this thesis finds that consumer creativity is a journey toward a moral destiny, with morality arising from the interplay between rationalism and Romanticism and the cultural, historical baggage of these two ideological systems (e.g., sexism in the domains of science and art). Along this journey, individual FOSS community members (i.e., FOSS programmers) co-create and negotiate their common identity—a craftsperson who is a scientist, artist, and moral warrior, an identity embodied by FOSS, their creative product and a form of technology. This journey is both sweet and bitter and full of paradoxes and conflicts, all of which have rich implications about the power relationships within the community. On the one hand, FOSS programmers recreate a mythologized paradise where they re-merge with the natural world and return to human nature and where they are re-actualizing the moral values of freedom, public interests, and egalitarianism. On the other hand, in this community, sexism against female programmers is rampant; some programmers could perceive that their creativity is constrained and exploited by powerful project owners and thereby feel alienated, frustrated, and trivialized; individual programmers could confront each other due to their different technological preferences and doubt each other‘s motivations; and this community‘s creative process is infused with politics. ii This thesis (1) enriches the marketing literature on consumer creativity which is dominated by an instrumental perspective of creativity by introducing the moral dimension of consumer creativity; (2) contributes to the marketing literature which is dominated by the view that the creative process is enjoyable and harmonious by examining paradoxes and conflicts in the creative process; and (3) enriches the marketing literature on the impact of technology on human well-being and the natural environment by illustrating a contextualized view that the impact of a technology depends on the moral values of the creator and the user of this technology. iii Acknowledgement This thesis is a fruit of co-creation. However, it is a daunting task for me to list all the people who have encouraged, helped, and supported me and thereby, directly and indirectly, co-created with me during the whole process of developing and writing this thesis. To anyone I have left out, I apologize and give my thanks. I would like to thank my committee members—Peter Dacin, Sandy Staples—and my supervisor—Jay Handelman—for their valuable help in shaping this thesis and challenging my thinking. Huge thanks to Peter and Sandy for their advice and challenge, which have been truly helpful and highly appreciated. Special thanks to Jay for his insight, patience, kindness, and encouragement. His mentorship is unforgettable. I would also like to thank Martin Hand—my internal-external examiner—and Leyland Pitt—my external examiner—for their insightful feedback and willingness to serve on my committee. In addition to my committee, I would like to thank other professors who have taught me research skills and developed my passion about research, especially Julian Barling, Bill Cooper, Peggy Cunningham, Li-Jun Ji, and Jane Webster. My thanks also go to my PhD cohort; I have definitely benefited a lot from discussion with them. Zhengxin Sun‘s ideas about postmodernism and postconstructionism truly helped me to understand these complex theories. Terry Beckman‘s technical support greatly enhanced my relationship with my computer. I would also like to thank other wonderful people at the Queen‘s School of Business. The Monieson Centre, Queen‘s School of Business, gave me generous research funding. Yolande Chan, Andrew Barrett, Anne Beaubien, and Kate Minor have given me iv great support, which has helped me to finish this thesis. The people at the PhD/MSc Office always stand behind me, giving me any help whenever I need. Without the lasting help and support of Annette Lilly, Julie Gutelius Clarke, Teresa Touchette, and Lisa Rodrigues, I would not have reached this stage of my PhD journey. I would like to thank Zhenchang Cui, one of the teachers at my elementary school. His encouragement has been a source of strength for me for more than thirty years. Throughout my life, there are so many friends who have shared their insight with me. My thanks also go to them, especially Handong Chen, Luo He, Jiandong Li, Zhefeng Liu, Zhen Song, Yue Xu, Yongzhong Wang, Yonggang Zeng, and Yue Zhang, whose friendship supported me on my PhD journey. I would like to express my gratitude to all the FOSS community members who participated in my research. Their time and help have been highly appreciated. Without their contribution, finishing this thesis would be impossible. I also want to express my gratitude to those FOSS community members, whose postings, blogs, articles, and books are cited in this thesis; they are co-creators of this thesis, too. I wish to express my gratitude to my family, whose love and support always give me strength, especially my father whose will power, perseverance, and curiosity about new knowledge always stimulate me to stick to my goals and to learn new knowledge; and my mother who always reminds me that having a good rest is a precondition for studying efficiently. I also want to thank my wife who took charge of all home chores and cooked delicious food for me in the past years, allowing me to focus on my thesis. Finally, special thanks to my naughty son: playing with him was the best way for me to relax. v Table of Contents Abstract ………………………….………………………….…………….……………..ii Acknowledgement ……………………………………………………………………… iv Table of Contents ………………………………………………………………………...vi List of Figures ……………………………………………………………………………ix List of Tables ……………………………………………………………………………..x Chapter 1: Introduction ..………. …….………………………….…………………..…...1 Chapter 2: Review of Literatures on Creativity and Consumer Creativity ………….…...7 2.1 Creativity in Psychology Literature ………………………….……………………8 2.1.1 History of the Concept of Creativity …………………………………………9 2.1.2 The Personality View of Creativity ………………………………………....11 2.1.3 The Cognitive View of Creativity …………………………………………..14 2.1.4 A Biopsychosocial View of Creativity ……………………………………...16 2.1.5 The Group/Collective View of Creativity …………………………………..19 2.2 Consumer Creativity in the Marketing Literature ………………………………..26 2.2.1 The Personality Trait View of Creativity of Isolated Individual Consumers 32 2.2.2 The Psycho-Social View of Creativity of Isolated Individual Consumers …34 2.2.3 The Political-Cultural View of Creativity of Isolated Individual Consumers 38 2.2.3.1 The Liberatory Postmodern View of Consumer Creative Resistance ....38 2.2.3.2 The Manipulation View of Consumer Creative Resistance …………....40 2.2.3.3 The Evolution View of Consumer Creative Resistance ……………….41 2.2.4 Three Concepts Related to Community-based Consumer Creativity ……….43 2.2.4.1 The Concepts of Community and Consumer Community ……………..43 2.2.4.2 The Concept of Online Consumer Community …………..……………45 2.2.5 The Sociocultural View of Community-based Consumer Creativity ……….48 2.2.5.1 A Model of Developmental Progression of Individual to Collective Creativity ……………………………………………………………....49 2.2.5.2 A Framework of Collective Problem-Solving Process ………………...50 2.2.5.3 A Social-Experiential View of Learning and Knowledge-Building …..50 2.2.6 The Psycho-Social View of Motivations ……………………………………52 vi 2.2.7 The Sociocultural View of Motivations …………………………………….55 2.2.8 Summary of the Marketing Literature ………………………………………57 Chapter 3: A New Political-Cultural View ………………………….…………………61 3.1 A Brief Review of Berman‘s View of Creativity ………………………………...64 3.2 Intrapersonal Paradoxes and Conflicts at the Individual Level …………………..66 3.2.1 The Modern Self …………………………………………………………….67 3.2.2 Consumer Creativity and Intrapersonal Paradoxes/Conflicts ……………….68 3.3 The Conflicts at the Community Level …………………………………………..70 3.3.1 Competition among Individual Members …………………………………...70 3.3.2 The Conflict between Individual Members and Their Community ………...71 3.4 Paradoxes/Conflicts at the Society Level ………………………………………..75 3.5 Summary of Berman‘s View of Consumer Creativity …………………………..78 Chapter 4: Methodology ………………………….………………………….………...80 4.1 The Free/Open Source Software (FOSS) Community as Cultural Site …………81 4.2 Data Collection …………………………………………………………………..86 4.2.1 Direct Interviews ……………………………………………………………88 4.2.2 Online Archives of Selected Netnographic Sites …………………………...92 4.2.3 Artifacts ……………………………………………………………………..94 4.3 Ethical Issues …………………………………………………………………….94 4.4 Data Analysis …………………………………………………………………….95 Chapter 5: Findings ………………………….………………………….…………........96 5.1 Theme One: Recreating a Paradise in Cyberspace ………………………………98 5.1.1 Re-merging with the Natural World ……………………………………….100 5.1.2 Returning to Human Nature