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This chapter seeks to enhance organizational theory's current typology of organizational architectures to explain a flourishing modern architecture that has developed utilizing the inexpensive communication paths created by technology such as the Internet and wireless networks. As communication and coordination costs have dropped, new organizing methods have grown that are difficult to understand using the traditional organizational architectures. In this chapter, we introduce a new community architecture, the “C-form,” which is categorized by (1) fluid, informal peripheral boundaries of membership; (2) significant incorporation of voluntary labor; (3) information-based product output; and (4) significantly open sharing of knowledge. Although the domain of open source software (OSS) is frequently cited as an example of such communities, we argue that the form expands well beyond the domain of software to a wide variety of information-based products. Drawing on a culture frame, we develop an initial set of principles of C-forms and finally explore the implications of the C-form for the modern organizational world.

Rather than organize as traditional firms, many of today’s companies organize as platforms that sit at the nexus of multiple exchange and production relationships. This chapter considers a most basic question of organization in platform contexts: the choice of boundaries. Herein, I investigate how classical economic theories of firm boundaries apply to platform-based organization and empirically study how executives made boundary choices in response to changing market and technical challenges in the early mobile computing industry (the predecessor to today’s smartphones). Rather than a strict or unavoidable tradeoff between “openness-versus-control,” most successful platform owners chose their boundaries in a way to simultaneously open-up to outside developers while maintaining coordination across the entire system.

There has been a recent surge of interest in open source software development, which involves developers at many different locations and organizations sharing code to develop and refine programs. To an economist, the behavior of individual programmers and commercial companies engaged in open source projects is initially startling. This paper makes a preliminary exploration of the economics of open source software. We highlight the extent to which labor economics, especially the literature on career concerns’, can explain many of these projects’ features. Aspects of the future of open source development process, however, remain somewhat difficult to predict with off-the-shelf’ economic models.

As costs around the world continue to rise for education, institutions must become innovative in the ways they teach and grow students. To do this effectively, professors and administrative staff should push toward the utilization of Open Source Software (OSS) and virtual tools to enhance or supplement currently available tools. In developing countries, OSS applications would allow students the ability to learn critical technological skills for success at small fraction of the cost. OSS also provides faculty members the ability to dissect source code and prepare students for low-level software development. It is critical that all institutions look at alternatives in providing training and delivering educational material regardless of limitations going forward as the world continues to be more global due to the increased use of technologies everywhere. Doing this could provide a means of shortening the education gap in many countries. Through reviewing the available technology, possible implementations of these technologies, and the application of these items in graduate coursework could provide a starting point in integrating these tools into academia. When administrators or faculty debate the possibilities of OSS, gaming, and simulation tools, this applied research provides a guide for changing the ability to develop students that will be competitive on a global level.

There are two leading paradigms about the power balance between multinational corporations (MNCs) and states. The MNCs in Command approach takes the perspective that MNCs dominate states. The States in Command perspective assumes that states lord over MNCs. Each perspective suffers from noteworthy flaws. I advocate a modified bargaining power (MBP) approach to understanding the relative power of MNCs and states. I test the value of this approach by examining Microsoft's experience in China between 1987 and 2004. My study shows that that a MBP approach sheds considerable light on the aforementioned case, whereas the two leading paradigms do not.

Virtualization is the simulation or emulation of computer resources to the user (Grauer, n.d.; Simpson, 2008). This chapter discusses virtualization as a viable classroom methodology for providing students with course relevant hands-on experience (Simpson, 2008) while synchronizing course specific content in traditional on-ground and online courses (Pheils, 2010). More specifically, this chapter provides an overview of virtualization, detailing several open source tools, and offering possible applications for incorporation into other courses including free resources for sample content. Proof-of-concept is established through examples of successful usage at two colleges. The adoption of virtualization within course development may provide a solution that spans disciplines and offers students the ability to practice and further their studies beyond the classroom.

Two key factors in the success of general-purpose computing platforms are the creation of a technical standards architecture and managing an ecosystem of third-party suppliers of complementary products. Here, we examine Symbian Ltd., a startup firm that developed a strong technical architecture and broad range of third-party complements with its Symbian OS for smartphones. Symbian was shipped in nearly 450 million mobile phones from 2000 to 2010, making it the most popular smartphone platform during that period. However, its technical and market control of the platform were limited by its customers, particularly Nokia. From 2007 onward, Symbian lost market share and developer loyalty to the new iPhone and Android platforms, leading to the extinction of the company and eventually its platform. Together, this suggests lessons for the evolution of a complex ecosystem, and the impact of asymmetric dependencies and divided leadership upon ecosystem success.

Although extant theory has illuminated conditions under which organizations mimic each other in form and practice, little research examines how organizations seek to differentiate themselves from conventional forms. Our comparative ethnographic studies examine how the Burning Man and Open Source communities developed organizations to help coordinate the production of an annual temporary arts event and nonproprietary, freely distributed software. Both communities sought to differentiate their organizations from reference groups, but this was not a sufficient condition for sustaining organizational novelty. We found that the ability to pursue a differentiated strategy was moderated by environmental conditions. By exploring the organizing decisions that each community made at two critical boundaries: one defining individuals’ relationship with the organization; the second defining the organization's relationship with the market, we show how organizing practices were recombined from the for-profit and nonprofit sectors in unexpected, novel ways. This comparative research contributes a grounded theoretical explanation of organizational innovation that adjudicates between differentiation and environmental conditions.