This paper examines open source software development in a competitive environment. The quality of open source software improves over time based upon contributions by firms and users. A firm's decision to contribute is interesting because it also augments competitors' software quality in future...

The open source paradigm is often defined as a collaborative effort, implying that firms and consumers come together in a non-competitive climate. We show here that open source development can arise from a competitive climate. Under competition, we find that open source is the surplus maximizing...