Open software/hardware and innovation platform: how different forms of motivation promote collaboration

Recently a high number of new innovative enterprises faced different competitive markets by promoting innovation both in products and services through open software/hardware & innovation (OSH&I) web-based platforms, which allow the collaboration of individuals and companies and the so-called crowdsourcing. A key issue concerns the identification of the most successful strategies both for driving the motivations which could encourage them to play an active role in the contents development and both for detecting the solutions to remove or mitigate the hindrances to an effective sharing of the efforts and benefits arisen by users participation. The paper, after having highlighted the theoretical background, grounded on a rich psychological and sociological literature on motivations in collaboration driven by incentives and rewards, proposes the results of the analysis of 116 OSH&I web platforms and discuss the effects of reward systems.