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Paper Number
ICIS2025-1383
Paper Type
Complete
Abstract
Open source software (OSS) has been a key driver for modern technologies and artificial intelligence. Many OSS repositories have adopted automated workflows to facilitate continuous integration and development. These automation tools have helped project maintainers to better integrate external resources and ensure the repository quality. Although these automation tools have wide implications for software development and community participation, little is known about how they shape the OSS innovation in software package ecosystem. In this study, we take a recombination view to understand how automation influences innovation activities of corresponding packages, as reflected by the dependency relationships among packages. We argue that adopting reliability-related automation in a package’s repository attracts more downstream dependents but limits the number of upstream dependencies. In contrast, integration-related automation decreases the number of downstream dependents but facilitates the recombination of upstream dependencies. Using empirical data from Python packages, our findings largely support our proposed hypotheses.
Recommended Citation
Zhang, Shuai and Wang, Zhiyi, "The Role of Automation Workflows in Open Source Software Innovation" (2025). ICIS 2025 Proceedings. 6.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/icis2025/digitstrategy/digitstrategy/6
The Role of Automation Workflows in Open Source Software Innovation
Open source software (OSS) has been a key driver for modern technologies and artificial intelligence. Many OSS repositories have adopted automated workflows to facilitate continuous integration and development. These automation tools have helped project maintainers to better integrate external resources and ensure the repository quality. Although these automation tools have wide implications for software development and community participation, little is known about how they shape the OSS innovation in software package ecosystem. In this study, we take a recombination view to understand how automation influences innovation activities of corresponding packages, as reflected by the dependency relationships among packages. We argue that adopting reliability-related automation in a package’s repository attracts more downstream dependents but limits the number of upstream dependencies. In contrast, integration-related automation decreases the number of downstream dependents but facilitates the recombination of upstream dependencies. Using empirical data from Python packages, our findings largely support our proposed hypotheses.
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