So Many Developers, So Many Projects: Toward a Motivation-Based Theory of Project Selection

Studies into open source software (OSS) development projects have hitherto focused on the question of why people are motivated to contribute to these projects, thereby assuming that motivational factors are the same across all types of OSS projects. In this study we challenge this assumption by investigating the question what motivates developers’ selection of an OSS project depending on the level of license restrictiveness. Hereto we first develop a comprehensive multi-theoretical model of developers’ motivations based on a literature review of foundational theories of motivations from multiple disciplinary backgrounds. Second, through data from 159 surveys, we show that developers’ motivations indeed influence the selection of projects to which they contribute based on license restrictiveness. Drawing upon our findings, we propose a theoretical process model of project selection. This model helps to understand the relations between motivations, project selection and level of contribution and can be applied in future research.