The Influence of Dependency Networks on Developer Attraction in Open Source Software Ecosystems

Open source software projects rely on the continuous attraction of developers and therefore access to the pool of available developer resources. In modern software ecosystems, these projects are related through technical dependencies. In this study, we investigate the influence of these dependencies on a project’s ability to attract developers. We develop and test our hypothesis by observing the dependency networks and repository activities of 1832 projects in the JavaScript ecosystem. We find that dependencies to other projects have a positive effect on developer attraction while we did not find an effect of dependencies from other projects. Our study contributes theoretically and practically to the understanding of developer attraction and highlights the role of technical interdependencies in software ecosystems.