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The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the literature about the commercial involvement in open source software, levels of this involvement and consequences of attempting to mix various logics of action.

This paper uses the case study approach based on mixed methods: literature reviews and news searches, electronic surveys, qualitative interviews and observations. It combines discussions from several research projects as well as previous publications to present the scope of commercial choices within open source software and their consequences.

The findings show that higher levels of involvement in open source software communities poses important questions about the balance between economic, technological, and social logics as well as the benefits of being autonomous, having access to collaborative networks and minimizing risks related to free-riding. There are six levels of commercial involvement in open source communities, and each of them is characterized by a different dilemma.

The paper sheds light on the various level of involvement of business in open source movement and emphasize that the popularized “open innovation” concept is only the first step in real involvement and paradigm shift.

This is a preliminary report about experimentation with new forms of cooperation in seven firms within the Danish metal industry.

Attempts by workers to take‐over and revive companies in crisis have been a recurring response to the threat of closure, particularly in times of economic recession. Being above all a response to the threat of unemployment, they logically tend to occur in industries undergoing restructuring where the workforce possesses industry‐specific skills, or where a local community is economically dependent upon the threatened plant. Thus, the current wave of worker take‐overs — beginning in the 1970's and variously manifest throughout the European Community — conforms to a clear, overall pattern which often includes a solidaristic or co‐operative response to such crisis periods.

Open Source software companies (OSSCs) are confronted with institutional pressures from Open Source software (OSS) communities. They must find an acceptable balance between the expectations of these communities and their own business model. However, there are still few studies that try to analyse the OSSC business models. The purpose of this paper is to highlight OSSC typical business models by using rich empirical data.

The methodology is based on a combination of quantitative analysis of a sample of 66 OSSCs and qualitative analysis of three typical situations resulting from that sample.

The quantitative study enables the authors to highlight three typical business models. The in-depth study of three typical cases enables the authors to specify these OSSC business models. The authors can distinguish four key dimensions: the relationship developed with the OSS communities, the strategic manoeuvres made, the key resources and competitive positioning.

The results indicate that it is possible for firms to accommodate both profit and non-profit logics using different strategic manoeuvres to position themselves with regard to the Open Source institutional environment. Such accommodation requires the development of key resources and the adoption of suitable competitive positioning.

This study allows the authors to highlight two main practical contributions for OSSCs’ directors. First, the different manoeuvres identified may help them to ensure coherence between their strategic choices and the business model chosen. Second, the results can help OSSC founders identify value creation mechanisms more clearly by analysing four key variables.

This paper provides new insight about OSSCs business models. It aggregates four dimensions that provide a more “fine-grained” analysis of business models, while other studies often emphasise one dimension (usually the regime of appropriability).

The institutional work literature has paid little attention to cognition and interests in the creation, maintenance, and disruption of institutions. The purpose of this paper is to explore the construct of interests as it relates to institutional work projects. The authors frame interests as recognitions situated within broader institutional meaning systems, with a specific focus on interest plurality.

The authors conducted an 18-month ethnography exploring institutional work projects within a rural chamber of commerce. The authors aimed to understand how projects contributed to community survival on a micro-level and institutional change on a macro-level. Rural chambers of commerce represent a unique example of emergent public-private partnerships, challenging traditional commercial logics of chambers of commerce. The research design included qualitative data collection, coding, and analysis of field notes, interviews, and archival sources.

Purposive action was grounded in the community inhabited by the rural chamber of commerce and not the institution itself. Recognized interests enabled nontraditional workers – public employees with newly founded and legitimate roles within the chamber – to pursue community-focussed projects. Change across the institution of chambers of commerce occurred because of the separated and aggregate projects spanning across rural communities.

Recognized interests are a social, plural, and malleable phenomenon supporting situated agency and the co-creation activities embodied in institutional work projects. The authors contribute to the institutional work literature by introducing the idea of interest plurality and illustrating how the work of rural chambers of commerce captures contemporary forms of community organizing.

This paper challenges the assumption in cross-cultural research of liability of foreignness (LOF). The literature review demonstrates that LOF comes from pressures for isomorphism, while asset of foreignness (AOF) can derive from the active process of breaking norms. The purpose of this paper is to explore how leaders can initiate and sustain AOF.

The paper analyzes the case of the Nissan revival led by Carlos Ghosn and the impact in the years after. The analysis is based on the authors’ interviews and discussions with Ghosn and senior leaders at Nissan and Renault, complemented with published interviews and assessments.

Analysis confirmed the potential for AOF, and further uncovered four patterns of behavior that created AOF virtuous cycles among Nissan leaders: initiating trust, shaping identity, anchoring and transcending common language, and acting positively on ignorance. The virtuous cycles were sustainable and transformed into new global strategic perspectives.

The paper proposes a research model identifying moderators between foreignness and performance. Generalizability is limited by the focus on a single case study.

The four sets of behaviors can serve as guides to action for leaders when working in foreign contexts.

This research goes beneath the surface of a famous example to analyze leadership dynamics over time, and provides insight on positive aspects of foreignness.