Paper Number
ICIS2025-1178
Paper Type
Short
Abstract
Platform complementors increasingly harness open-source crowds for value creation. However, it remains unclear how complementors can motivate such crowds to co-create knowledge. We study the temporal dynamics of complementors’ participation in temporary social gatherings and subsequent crowd involvement. We observe the participation of 326 game studios in the Game Developer Conference through sponsored or hosted sessions in 2022 to 2024 and examine their open-source activities on GitHub after the gatherings. Our findings suggest a positive relationship between complementor participation and crowd involvement, which peaks four months after the gathering before experiencing a sharp decline, highlighting a short-term effect. Our findings further suggest a negative moderating effect of product portfolio size on the relationship. This short paper contributes to platform literature on complementor value creation as well as research on open innovation and open-source crowds. Furthermore, we offer practical implications for platform complementors and organizers of temporary social gatherings.
Recommended Citation
Felbermayer, Raphael; Saesen, Julie; Kindermann, Bastian; and Strese, Steffen, "Temporary Social Gatherings of Complementors and Crowd Involvement" (2025). ICIS 2025 Proceedings. 3.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/icis2025/sharing_econ/sharing_econ/3
Temporary Social Gatherings of Complementors and Crowd Involvement
Platform complementors increasingly harness open-source crowds for value creation. However, it remains unclear how complementors can motivate such crowds to co-create knowledge. We study the temporal dynamics of complementors’ participation in temporary social gatherings and subsequent crowd involvement. We observe the participation of 326 game studios in the Game Developer Conference through sponsored or hosted sessions in 2022 to 2024 and examine their open-source activities on GitHub after the gatherings. Our findings suggest a positive relationship between complementor participation and crowd involvement, which peaks four months after the gathering before experiencing a sharp decline, highlighting a short-term effect. Our findings further suggest a negative moderating effect of product portfolio size on the relationship. This short paper contributes to platform literature on complementor value creation as well as research on open innovation and open-source crowds. Furthermore, we offer practical implications for platform complementors and organizers of temporary social gatherings.
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