Abstract This paper attempts to study the influence of business involvement on open source innovation from the perspective of licensing scheme. In a twostage dynamic game with complete information, the licensor of an open source project tries to manipulate incentives of community and firm by choosing different license agreements so as to maximize total contribution to open source project. The results indicate that openness of open source innovation is influenced by firm’s complementary benefits from contributing to open source project when only one firm is involved; however, restrictive license is preferred when more firms choose to participate. Overall, openness of open source innovation will not be undermined by business involvement and may be enhanced.
2013, Vol. 10 
