Paper accepted for publication in Management Science

The article examines how companies' transition from proprietary to open source software affects both development communities and business performance, using Microsoft's adoption of Chromium for its Edge browser as a key case study.

The research finds that Microsoft's move to open source led to a 6% increase in contributions from external developers and a 271% increase in security vulnerability reporting. For Microsoft, the transition resulted in technological parity with market leaders, faster release cycles (from 203 to 53 days), and a 4 percentage point gain in market share. The study demonstrates that such strategic shifts to open source can benefit both companies and development communities, with implications extending beyond browsers to operating systems, AI technologies, and other sectors.

The paper can be accessed:
- Publisher's website: [forthcoming]
- SSRN: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4946238

This research was supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation (project 100013_197807).

Illustration made in Microsoft Image Creator.