Preventing Others From Commercializing Your Innovation: Evidence From Creative Commons Licenses

Online innovation communities are an important source of innovation for many organizations. While contributions to such communities are typically made without financial compensation, these contributions are often governed by licenses such as Creative Commons that may prevent others from building upon and commercializing them. While this can diminish the usefulness of contributions, there is limited work analyzing what leads individuals to impose restrictions on the use of their work. In this paper, we examine innovators imposing restrictive licenses within the 3D-printable design community Thingiverse. Our analyses suggest that innovators are more likely to restrict commercialization of their contributions as their reputation increases and when reusing contributions created by others. These findings contribute to innovation communities and the growing literature on property rights in digital markets.

Online innovation communities are an important source of innovation for many organizations. While contributions to such communities are typically made without financial compensation, these contributions are often governed by licenses such as Creative Commons that may prevent others from building upon and commercializing them. While this can diminish the usefulness of contributions, there is limited work analyzing what leads individuals to impose restrictions on the use of their work. In this paper, we examine innovators imposing restrictive licenses within the 3Dprintable design community Thingiverse. Our analyses suggest that innovators are more likely to restrict commercialization of their contributions as their reputation increases and when reusing contributions created by others. These findings contribute to innovation communities and the growing literature on property rights in digital markets.