THE ORIGIN, EVOLUTION, AND VARIATION OF ROUTINE STRUCTURES IN OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT: THREE MIXED COMPUTATIONAL-QUALITATIVE STUDIES by ARON LINDBERG Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation Committee: Kalle Lyytinen, PhD, Case Western Reserve University (chair) Fred Collopy, PhD, Case Western Reserve University Richard Boland, PhD, Case Western Reserve University Jagdip Singh, PhD, Case Western Reserve University Youngjin Yoo, PhD, Temple University James Howison, PhD, University of Texas-Austin WEATHERHEAD SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT DEPARTMENT OF DESIGN & INNOVATION CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY August 2015 CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES We hereby approve the thesis/dissertation of Aron Lindberg candidate for the Doctor of Philosophy degree*. (signed) Kalle Lyytinen (chair of the committee) Richard Boland Fred Collopy Jagdip Singh Youngjin Yoo James Howison (date) May 19, 2015 *We also certify that written approval has been obtained for any proprietary material contained therein. Copyright © 2015 by Aron Lindberg All rights reserved Dedication Tove Jansson, in her book Moominpappa at Sea, wrote: ”But on an occasion like this we must wait for sunset. Setting out in the right way is just as important as the opening lines in a book: they determine everything.” He sat in the sand next to Moominmamma. “Look at the boat,” he said. “Look at The Adventure. A boat by night is a wonderful sight. This is the way to start a new life, with a hurricane lamp shining at the top of the mast, and the coastline disappearing behind one as the whole world lies sleeping. Making a journey by night is more wonderful than anything in the world.” This work is dedicated to my fiancée, Hope Lu, without whom I could never have launched the journey, which this dissertation is the start of. Table of Contents ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .......................................................................................................................... 5 ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................................ 8 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................................... 10 THEORETICAL FRAMING ................................................................................................................... 19 THE INFORMATION PROCESSING VIEW ............................................................................................................. 19 SOCIAL STRUCTURE IN ORGANIZATIONS ........................................................................................................... 22 RESEARCH QUESTIONS ...................................................................................................................... 32 RESEARCH DESIGN .............................................................................................................................. 33 CHARACTERISTICS OF DIGITAL TRACE DATA ................................................................................................... 38 SAMPLING & DATA COLLECTION ......................................................................................................................... 49 ANALYSES ................................................................................................................................................................ 53 ASSESSING VALIDITY ............................................................................................................................................. 59 OVERVIEW OF THREE COMPLEMENTARY STUDIES ................................................................. 62 ORIGIN: A CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY ................................................................................................................. 64 EVOLUTION: A LONGITUDINAL STUDY ............................................................................................................... 65 VARIATION: A COMPARATIVE STUDY ................................................................................................................. 65 THE STRUCTURE OF A THREE-PAPER DISSERTATION .................................................................................... 66 STUDY #1: THE ORIGIN OF ROUTINES AS PROBLEM SOLVING MECHANISMS ................ 67 COORDINATION AND VARIATION IN OSS DEVELOPMENT .............................................................................. 70 AN INFORMATION PROCESSING VIEW OF OSS DEVELOPMENT .................................................................... 72 A CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY OF OSS ROUTINES: TASK COMPLEXITY AND ROUTINE VARIETY .............. 78 THEORIZING: A PROCESS MODEL OF OSS AS AN INFORMATION PROCESSING SYSTEM ......................... 108 DISCUSSION ........................................................................................................................................................... 116 STUDY #2: THE EVOLUTION OF ROUTINES AS RESPONSES TO ENVIRONMENTAL SHIFTS .................................................................................................................................................. 119 LIFECYCLES IN OSS DEVELOPMENT ................................................................................................................. 121 EXPLAINING HETEROGENEITY IN OSS DEVELOPMENT ROUTINES ACROSS TIME ................................... 123 A LONGITUDINAL STUDY OF OSS ROUTINES: SHIFTS IN ROUTINE COMPOSITIONS ................................ 126 THEORIZING: TOWARDS AN OSS LIFECYCLE MODEL .................................................................................... 153 DISCUSSION ........................................................................................................................................................... 157 STUDY #3: THE VARIATION OF ROUTINES AS RESPONSES TO ORGANIZATIONAL AND TECHNICAL CONDITIONS ............................................................................................................... 160 EXPLORATORY DATA MINING USING SEQUENCE ANALYSIS ......................................................................... 163 ROUTINE CHARACTERISTICS .............................................................................................................................. 168 EXPLAINING HETEROGENEITY OF OSS DEVELOPMENT ROUTINES ACROSS PROJECTS .......................... 170 A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF OSS ROUTINES: EXPLAINING ROUTINE HETEROGENEITY ......................... 172 AN INFORMATION PROCESSING VIEW OF OSS DEVELOPMENT .................................................................. 173 THEORIZING: EXPLAINING PATTERNS OF ROUTINE HETEROGENEITY ...................................................... 188 DISCUSSION ........................................................................................................................................................... 192 CONCLUSION ...................................................................................................................................... 196 THEORETICAL CONTRIBUTIONS ........................................................................................................................ 197 METHODOLOGICAL CONTRIBUTIONS ................................................................................................................ 202 PRACTICAL CONTRIBUTIONS .............................................................................................................................. 204 1 LIMITATIONS & FUTURE RESEARCH ................................................................................................................. 206 APPENDIX A: DATA EXTRACTION R/SQL QUERY ................................................................... 210 APPENDIX B: DATA EXTRACTION RUBY SCRIPT ................................................................... 212 APPENDIX C: DATA EXTRACTION R SCRIPT ............................................................................ 213 APPENDIX D: DATA PROCESSING R SCRIPT ............................................................................. 216 APPENDIX E: SEMI-STRUCTURED INTERVIEW PROTOCOL ................................................ 222 REFERENCES ....................................................................................................................................... 224 2 List of Tables TABLE 1. FOUR DIMENSIONS OF ORGANIZATIONAL SOCIAL STRUCTURE ................................ 25 TABLE 2. KEY ASPECTS OF ROUTINIZED STRUCTURE IN OPEN SOURCE ORGANIZING ....... 29 TABLE 3. ASPECTS OF DIGITAL TRACES AT GITHUB ............................................................................ 47 TABLE 4. DEFINITIONS OF ACTIVITY TYPES ............................................................................................. 49 TABLE 5. SAMPLE SIZES ...................................................................................................................................... 52 TABLE 7. OVERVIEW OF THE THREE STUDIES IN THIS DISSERTATION ..................................... 63 TABLE 8. DEFINITIONS FOR IPV CONCEPTS IN OSS ............................................................................... 77 TABLE 9. ACTIVITY FREQUENCIES PER CLUSTER .................................................................................. 82 TABLE 10. DATA COLLECTION ........................................................................................................................