Open Collaboration for Innovation: Principles and Performance

Sheen S. Levine, Michael J. Prietula · 2013 · Organization Science

Summary. Open collaboration—where participants create goods, reuse each other's work, coordinate loosely, and allow anyone to contribute—drives innovation across software, medicine, science, and everyday ventures. Using computational modeling, the authors show that open collaboration performs well even under difficult conditions: when cooperators are outnumbered, free riders exist, diversity is low, or resources are scarce. The model reveals that cooperativeness, participant diversity, and resource rivalry shape performance. Open collaboration represents a viable organizational form likely to expand beyond its current domains.

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Levine, S. S., & Prietula, M. J.. (2013). Open Collaboration for Innovation: Principles and Performance. Organization Science. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2013.0872

@article{levine-2013-open-collaboration-innovation-principles-performance,
  title   = {Open Collaboration for Innovation: Principles and Performance},
  author  = {Sheen S. Levine and Michael J. Prietula},
  journal = {Organization Science},
  year    = {2013},
  doi     = {10.1287/orsc.2013.0872},
  url     = {https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2013.0872}
}

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AU  - Sheen S. Levine
AU  - Michael J. Prietula
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Details

DOI: 10.1287/orsc.2013.0872
Countries: United States
Regions: North America
Categories: innovation-theory, innovation-networks, general-innovation
Added: 2026-04-28