IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/respol/v52y2023i10s0048733323001695.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The impacts of lockdown on open source software contributions during the COVID-19 pandemic

Author

Listed:
  • Hu, Jin
  • Hu, Daning
  • Yang, Xuan
  • Chau, Michael

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic instigated widespread lockdowns, compelling millions to transition to work-from-home (WFH) arrangements and rely heavily on computer-mediated communications (CMC) for collaboration. This study examines the impacts of lockdown on innovation-driven work productivity, focusing on contributions to open source software (OSS) projects on GitHub, the world's largest OSS platform. By leveraging two lockdowns in China as natural experiments, we discover that developers in the 2021 Xi'an lockdown increased OSS contributions by 9.0 %, while those in the 2020 Wuhan lockdown reduced their contributions by 10.5 %. A subsequent survey study elucidates this divergence, uncovering an adaptation effect wherein Xi'an developers became more accustomed to the new norm of WFH over time, capitalizing on the flexibility and opportunities of remote work. Moreover, our findings across both lockdowns reveal that the lack of face-to-face (F2F) interactions significantly impeded OSS contributions, whereas the increased available time at home positively influenced them. This finding is especially noteworthy as it challenges the assumption that CMC can effortlessly substitute for F2F interactions without negatively affecting productivity. We further examine the impacts of stay-at-home orders in the United States (US) on OSS contributions and find no significant effects. Collectively, our research offers valuable insights into the multifaceted impacts of lockdown on productivity, shedding light on how individuals adapt to remote work norms during protracted disruptions like a pandemic. These insights provide various stakeholders, including individuals, organizations, and policymakers, with vital knowledge to prepare for future disruptions, foster sustainable resilience, and adeptly navigate the evolving landscape of remote work in a post-pandemic world.

Suggested Citation

  • Hu, Jin & Hu, Daning & Yang, Xuan & Chau, Michael, 2023. "The impacts of lockdown on open source software contributions during the COVID-19 pandemic," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(10).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:respol:v:52:y:2023:i:10:s0048733323001695
    DOI: 10.1016/j.respol.2023.104885
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048733323001695
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.respol.2023.104885?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Leslie, Emily & Wilson, Riley, 2020. "Sheltering in place and domestic violence: Evidence from calls for service during COVID-19," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 189(C).
    2. Adam Sheridan & Asger Lau Andersen & Emil Toft Hansen & Niels Johannesen, 2020. "Social distancing laws cause only small losses of economic activity during the COVID-19 pandemic in Scandinavia," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 117(34), pages 20468-20473, August.
    3. Guihua Wang, 2022. "Stay at home to stay safe: Effectiveness of stay‐at‐home orders in containing the COVID‐19 pandemic," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 31(5), pages 2289-2305, May.
    4. Stam, Wouter, 2009. "When does community participation enhance the performance of open source software companies?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(8), pages 1288-1299, October.
    5. Lee Sproull & Sara Kiesler, 1986. "Reducing Social Context Cues: Electronic Mail in Organizational Communication," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 32(11), pages 1492-1512, November.
    6. Nicolai J. Foss & Lars Bo Jeppesen & Francesco Rullani, 2021. "How context and attention shape behaviors in online communities: a modified garbage can model [Complexity theory and organization science]," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 30(1), pages 1-18.
    7. Walters, Cyrill & Mehl, Graeme G. & Piraino, Patrizio & Jansen, Jonathan D. & Kriger, Samantha, 2022. "The impact of the pandemic-enforced lockdown on the scholarly productivity of women academics in South Africa," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(1).
    8. Melanie S. Brucks & Jonathan Levav, 2022. "Publisher Correction: Virtual communication curbs creative idea generation," Nature, Nature, vol. 606(7915), pages 17-17, June.
    9. Hertel, Guido & Niedner, Sven & Herrmann, Stefanie, 2003. "Motivation of software developers in Open Source projects: an Internet-based survey of contributors to the Linux kernel," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(7), pages 1159-1177, July.
    10. Richard L. Daft & Robert H. Lengel, 1986. "Organizational Information Requirements, Media Richness and Structural Design," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 32(5), pages 554-571, May.
    11. Jens Foerderer, 2020. "Interfirm Exchange and Innovation in Platform Ecosystems: Evidence from Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 66(10), pages 4772-4787, October.
    12. Ned Kock, 2004. "The Psychobiological Model: Towards a New Theory of Computer-Mediated Communication Based on Darwinian Evolution," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 15(3), pages 327-348, June.
    13. Karthik Muralidharan & Nishith Prakash, 2017. "Cycling to School: Increasing Secondary School Enrollment for Girls in India," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 9(3), pages 321-350, July.
    14. Cramton, Catherine Durnell & Webber, Sheila Simsarian, 2005. "Relationships among geographic dispersion, team processes, and effectiveness in software development work teams," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 58(6), pages 758-765, June.
    15. Takanao Tanaka & Shohei Okamoto, 2021. "Increase in suicide following an initial decline during the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 5(2), pages 229-238, February.
    16. Paul DiMaggio & Eszter Hargittai & W. Russell Neuman & John P. Robinson, 2001. "Social Implications of the Internet," Working Papers 159, Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Center for Arts and Cultural Policy Studies..
    17. Fang, Hanming & Wang, Long & Yang, Yang, 2020. "Human mobility restrictions and the spread of the Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) in China," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 191(C).
    18. Yongji Wang & Hongwei Cai & Chanjuan Li & Zhiwei Jiang & Ling Wang & Jiugang Song & Jielai Xia, 2013. "Optimal Caliper Width for Propensity Score Matching of Three Treatment Groups: A Monte Carlo Study," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(12), pages 1-7, December.
    19. Melanie S. Brucks & Jonathan Levav, 2022. "Virtual communication curbs creative idea generation," Nature, Nature, vol. 605(7908), pages 108-112, May.
    20. Paul DiMaggio & Eszter Hargittai & W. Russell Neuman & John P. Robinson, 2001. "Social Implications of the Internet," Working Papers 159, Princeton University, School of Public and International Affairs, Center for Arts and Cultural Policy Studies..
    21. Brad M. Barber & Wei Jiang & Adair Morse & Manju Puri & Heather Tookes & Ingrid M. Werner, 2021. "What Explains Differences in Finance Research Productivity during the Pandemic?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 76(4), pages 1655-1697, August.
    22. Chen, Shenglan & Ma, Hui & Wu, Qiang, 2019. "Bank credit and trade credit: Evidence from natural experiments," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 108(C).
    23. Xuan Yang & Xiao Li & Daning Hu & Harry Jiannan Wang, 2021. "Differential impacts of social influence on initial and sustained participation in open source software projects," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 72(9), pages 1133-1147, September.
    24. Sonali K. Shah, 2006. "Motivation, Governance, and the Viability of Hybrid Forms in Open Source Software Development," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 52(7), pages 1000-1014, July.
    25. Xiaoquan (Michael) Zhang & Feng Zhu, 2011. "Group Size and Incentives to Contribute: A Natural Experiment at Chinese Wikipedia," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(4), pages 1601-1615, June.
    26. Catherine Durnell Cramton, 2001. "The Mutual Knowledge Problem and Its Consequences for Dispersed Collaboration," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 12(3), pages 346-371, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Dejean, Sylvain & Jullien, Nicolas, 2015. "Big from the beginning: Assessing online contributors’ behavior by their first contribution," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(6), pages 1226-1239.
    2. Myriam Karoui & Ali Gürkan & Aurélie Dudézert, 2010. "Virtual Team Collaboration: a review of literature and perspectives," Post-Print hal-00509753, HAL.
    3. Angelo Antoci & Alexia Delfino & Fabio Paglieri & Fabrizio Panebianco & Fabio Sabatini, 2016. "Civility vs. Incivility in Online Social Interactions: An Evolutionary Approach," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(11), pages 1-17, November.
    4. Tangirala, Subrahmaniam & Alge, Bradley J., 2006. "Reactions to unfair events in computer-mediated groups: A test of uncertainty management theory," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 100(1), pages 1-20, May.
    5. Sumita Raghuram & Philipp Tuertscher & Raghu Garud, 2010. "Research Note ---Mapping the Field of Virtual Work: A Cocitation Analysis," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 21(4), pages 983-999, December.
    6. Dorn, Florian & Lange, Berit & Braml, Martin & Gstrein, David & Nyirenda, John L.Z. & Vanella, Patrizio & Winter, Joachim & Fuest, Clemens & Krause, Gérard, 2023. "The challenge of estimating the direct and indirect effects of COVID-19 interventions – Toward an integrated economic and epidemiological approach," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 49(C).
    7. Yuqing Ren & Jilin Chen & John Riedl, 2016. "The Impact and Evolution of Group Diversity in Online Open Collaboration," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 62(6), pages 1668-1686, June.
    8. Sidhu, Jatinder S. & Volberda, Henk W., 2011. "Coordination of globally distributed teams: A co-evolution perspective on offshoring," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 278-290, June.
    9. Eric Overby, 2008. "Process Virtualization Theory and the Impact of Information Technology," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 19(2), pages 277-291, April.
    10. Chih-Hung Peng & Nicholas H. Lurie & Sandra A. Slaughter, 2019. "Using Technology to Persuade: Visual Representation Technologies and Consensus Seeking in Virtual Teams," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 30(3), pages 948-962, September.
    11. Kieran Mathieson, 2007. "Towards a Design Science of Ethical Decision Support," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 76(3), pages 269-292, December.
    12. Mahr, Dominik & Lievens, Annouk, 2012. "Virtual lead user communities: Drivers of knowledge creation for innovation," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(1), pages 167-177.
    13. Cristina B. Gibson & Jennifer L. Gibbs & Taryn L. Stanko & Paul Tesluk & Susan G. Cohen, 2011. "Including the “I” in Virtuality and Modern Job Design: Extending the Job Characteristics Model to Include the Moderating Effect of Individual Experiences of Electronic Dependence and Copresence," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 22(6), pages 1481-1499, December.
    14. Ann Majchrzak & Arvind Malhotra & Richard John, 2005. "Perceived Individual Collaboration Know-How Development Through Information Technology–Enabled Contextualization: Evidence from Distributed Teams," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 16(1), pages 9-27, March.
    15. Gajendran, Ravi S. & Loewenstein, Jeffrey & Choi, Hyeran & Ozgen, Sibel, 2022. "Hidden costs of text-based electronic communication on complex reasoning tasks: Motivation maintenance and impaired downstream performance," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
    16. Jonathan Sapsed & David Gann & Nick Marshall & Ammon Salter, 2005. "From here to eternity?: The practice of knowledge transfer in dispersed and co-located project organizations," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(6), pages 831-851, September.
    17. Bryan K. Hasty & Anne P. Massey & Susan A. Brown, 2006. "Role-Based Experiences, Media Perceptions, and Knowledge Transfer Success in Virtual Dyads," Group Decision and Negotiation, Springer, vol. 15(4), pages 367-387, July.
    18. Thorsten Hennig-Thurau & Dorothea N. Aliman & Alina M. Herting & Gerrit P. Cziehso & Marc Linder & Raoul V. Kübler, 2023. "Social interactions in the metaverse: Framework, initial evidence, and research roadmap," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 51(4), pages 889-913, July.
    19. David Xu & Ronald Cenfetelli & Karl Aquino, 2012. "The Influence of Media Cue Multiplicity on Deceivers and Those Who Are Deceived," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 106(3), pages 337-352, March.
    20. Moritz Goldbeck, 2023. "Bit by Bit: Colocation and the Death of Distance in Software Developer Networks," Rationality and Competition Discussion Paper Series 422, CRC TRR 190 Rationality and Competition.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:respol:v:52:y:2023:i:10:s0048733323001695. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/respol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.