Developer experience · Empirical ecosystem study

How do companies collaborate in open source ecosystems? An empirical study of OpenStack

ACM/IEEE International Conference on Software Engineering · 2020

Yuxia Zhang, Minghui Zhou, Klaas-Jan Stol, Jianyu Wu, Zhi Jin

Original paper ↗

Summary

Commercial collaboration is substantial and structured across organizations rather than purely volunteer-driven.

For your marketing

Possible founder application

Define contribution pathways, company roles, and cross-firm governance early.

Reported result

What the study found

Commercial collaboration is substantial and structured across organizations rather than purely volunteer-driven.

Research question

What the authors investigated

How does the study’s stated design explain its reported outcome in this setting?

Design

Empirical ecosystem study

Sample and setting

OpenStack ecosystem with hundreds of companies and thousands of projects.

Scope and transfer

Limitations to keep in view

Abstract/page evidence limits detailed sample and external-validity assessment.

Research sources

abstract_only

Study strength

3.5/5 Abstract-level evidence is useful for framing questions; verify full methods before transfer.

How this was assessed

The 1–5 evidence-check score is a practical reading aid, not a formal peer review or a probability that a conclusion is true. It combines design strength (2 points), sample reporting (1), comparison/control clarity (1), and how much of the paper could be checked (1). Access affects how confidently this directory can assess a study, not the study's underlying quality. Blinding is reported separately because it is not relevant to every design.

Design transparency · 2/2

Based on the reported study design in the retrieved source.

Sample and setting · 1/1

The sample context is stated; a numerical count is preserved only when reported.

Outcome clarity · 1/1

The finding is summarized from publisher or article metadata.

Access for checking · 0.5/1

Only abstract or bibliographic access was confirmed.

Double-blind? The retrieved publisher record does not establish whether participants or outcome assessors were blinded.