Why do innovation specialist firms engage with Open Source projects?

Open Source Software (OSS) is increasing in popularity. Proponents argue that OSS leads to a higher rate of innovation, is less prone to bugs, and has a faster adoption rate than proprietary software. However, within OSS a company cannot rely on traditional means of exclusive ownership of particular resources in order to gain a competitive advantage. Therefore, it is important for a firm to have a good understanding of what resources it can afford to share to Open Source projects, and which resources should be kept within the firm. The purpose of this research was to answer the following question: “What variables influence organizations to choose Open Source activities over proprietary development?”.