How Open Source Software Succeeds? A Review of Research on Success of Open Source Software

Different aspects of Open Source Software (OSS) have been subject of many research in last decades. Among them many researchers have tried to adopt the pervasive literature of information systems success with this special kind of system development and its specific dimensions. On the other hand the question of success in the OSS development may cover all different aspects of OSS development and help managers and sponsors of OSS projects to evaluate and increase effectiveness of these projects. So drawing a full picture of related research may be beneficial in different ways. In this paper we try to make a systematic review of related literature in the field and specially pay attention to the measures of success, factors affecting the OSS success and research methods used in previous research. We discussed measures of success and determinants that affect success of OSS as well as methods used in related research and conclude with some points that may strengthen the quality of further work in the topic.