Publication Type

Journal Article

Version

acceptedVersion

Publication Date

3-2013

Abstract

The organizational literature is increasingly interested in the origins and consequences of category emergence. We examine the effects of being affiliated with categories initially considered illegitimate (‘divergence’), and of organizational attempts to blur the boundaries between categories (‘straddling’), on capital market reactions to firm announcements. We develop arguments for how these effects likely vary with increasing legitimation (‘currency’) of the category. We apply event study methodology to the complete population of firms' announcements of open source activities, an open innovation model for software development that is novel and defies the extant dominant logic of software production and valorization. Over a ten-year period, we find negative effects of divergence, positive effects of straddling, and that the magnitude of both these effects diminishes with increasing category currency. The implications for theories of organization and open innovation in the context of category emergence are discussed.

Keywords

category emergence, open innovation, open source software, organizational legitimacy, valuation

Discipline

Business | Strategic Management Policy | Technology and Innovation

Research Areas

Strategy and Organisation

Publication

Journal of Management Studies

Volume

50

Issue

2

First Page

173

Last Page

203

ISSN

0022-2380

Identifier

10.1111/joms.12000

Publisher

Wiley

Copyright Owner and License

Authors

Additional URL

https://doi.org/10.1111/joms.12000

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