Abstract

Software ecosystems have become a new paradigm for the development of large-scale software, bringing a complex mixture of technical, business and social aspects. Although previous research has focused on understanding both the technical and business aspects, the social side of software ecosystems is less understood. To fill this gap, this paper presents the results of an empirical study aimed at understanding the influence of social aspects on the adoption and permanence of developers in software ecosystems. We conducted 25 interviews with software developers and we distributed an online questionnaire which included responses from 83 developers of mobile software applications. Using grounded theory techniques, we identified a complex social system based on continuous interaction and mutual support between different actors, including internal and external developers to the ecosystem, community developers, end users and businesses. Our results highlight the importance of social aspects in software ecosystems during the initial phase of adoption, as well as the continued participation of developers.