The impacts of lockdown on open source software contributions during the COVID-19 pandemic
Jin Hu,
Daning Hu,
Xuan Yang and
Michael Chau
Research Policy, 2023, vol. 52, issue 10
Abstract:
The COVID-19 pandemic instigated widespread lockdowns, compelling millions to transition to work-from-home (WFH) arrangements and rely heavily on computer-mediated communications (CMC) for collaboration. This study examines the impacts of lockdown on innovation-driven work productivity, focusing on contributions to open source software (OSS) projects on GitHub, the world's largest OSS platform. By leveraging two lockdowns in China as natural experiments, we discover that developers in the 2021 Xi'an lockdown increased OSS contributions by 9.0 %, while those in the 2020 Wuhan lockdown reduced their contributions by 10.5 %. A subsequent survey study elucidates this divergence, uncovering an adaptation effect wherein Xi'an developers became more accustomed to the new norm of WFH over time, capitalizing on the flexibility and opportunities of remote work. Moreover, our findings across both lockdowns reveal that the lack of face-to-face (F2F) interactions significantly impeded OSS contributions, whereas the increased available time at home positively influenced them. This finding is especially noteworthy as it challenges the assumption that CMC can effortlessly substitute for F2F interactions without negatively affecting productivity. We further examine the impacts of stay-at-home orders in the United States (US) on OSS contributions and find no significant effects. Collectively, our research offers valuable insights into the multifaceted impacts of lockdown on productivity, shedding light on how individuals adapt to remote work norms during protracted disruptions like a pandemic. These insights provide various stakeholders, including individuals, organizations, and policymakers, with vital knowledge to prepare for future disruptions, foster sustainable resilience, and adeptly navigate the evolving landscape of remote work in a post-pandemic world.
Keywords: COVID-19; Lockdown; Work productivity; Open source software; Face-to-face interactions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:
Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048733323001695
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.
Export reference: BibTeX
RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan)
HTML/Text
Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:respol:v:52:y:2023:i:10:s0048733323001695
DOI: 10.1016/j.respol.2023.104885
Access Statistics for this article
Research Policy is currently edited by M. Bell, B. Martin, W.E. Steinmueller, A. Arora, M. Callon, M. Kenney, S. Kuhlmann, Keun Lee and F. Murray
More articles in Research Policy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu (repec@elsevier.com).