Intrinsic motivations and profit-oriented firms in open source software. Do firms practise what they preach?

This paper contributes to the literature by providing empirical evidence on the incentives of firms that engage in Open Source activities. Data collected by a survey on 146 Italian companies supplying OS solutions (Open Source firms) show that (surprisingly) intrinsic, community based incentives do play a role but are not, in general, put into practise. The discrepancy between attitudes and behaviours is investigated and firms adopting more consistent behaviours are singled out. Our results are in line with the literature on business models of firms entering the Open Source field.