Abstract
Software companies have increasingly organised hackathons since the early 2010s. These time-bounded, intensive, collaborative and solution-oriented events enable companies to generate several ideas, some of which can be used to evolve their products and services. Hackathons are means to gather feedback from outside to innovate. Companies also follow such open innovation trend by raising software ecosystems via a platformisation process. They create platforms so that third parties can develop new software solutions and in doing so extend the current product portfolio. In this scenario, a hackathon can be seen as a strategy to support ecosystem evolution. Therefore, we decided to conduct a systematic mapping study to investigate the benefits that hackathons can provide to software ecosystems. This paper presents our analysis of twenty-seven papers on corporate hackathons in the software industry. As main findings, we (i) describe a set of fourteen social, technical and business benefits; as well as (ii) discuss how companies can leverage ecosystem health by conducting hackathons. We address the scarcity of research around the outcomes of corporate hackathons. Besides, we conclude that hackathons are alternative modes of production and innovation, which can catalyse a software ecosystem.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsReferences
Attard, J.: A systematic review of open government data initiatives. Gov. Inf. Q. 32(4), 399–418 (2015)
Che, M., Perry, D.E.: Architectural design decisions in open software development: a transition to software ecosystems. In: Australian Software Engineering Conference, pp. 58–61 (2014)
Cruzes, D.S., Dyba, T.: Recommended steps for thematic synthesis in software engineering. In: IEEE International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement, pp. 275–284 (2011)
Herala, A.: Strategy for data: open it or hack it? J. Theor. Appl. Electron. Commer. Res. 14(2), 33–46 (2019)
Iansiti, M., Levien, R.: Strategy as ecology. Harvard Bus. Rev. 82(3), 68–81 (2004)
Jansen, S., Finkelstein, A., Brinkkemper, S.: A sense of community: a research agenda for software ecosystems. In: 31st International Conference on Software Engineering, pp. 187–190 (2009)
Komssi, M., et al.: What are hackathons for? IEEE Softw. 32(5), 60–67 (2015)
Manikas, K., Hansen, K.M.: Reviewing the health of software ecosystems – a conceptual framework proposal. In: International Workshop on Software Ecosystems, pp. 33–44 (2013)
Manikas, K., Hansen, K.M.: Software ecosystems – a systematic literature review. J. Syst. Softw. 86(5), 1294–1306 (2013)
Nambisan, S., Siegel, D., Kenney, M.: On open innovation, platforms, and entrepreneurship. Strateg. Entrep. J. 12(3), 354–368 (2018)
Nolte, A., et al.: You hacked and now what? - Exploring outcomes of a corporate Hackathon. In: PACMHCI 2(CSCW), pp. 1–23 (2018)
Pe-Than, E., et al.: Designing corporate Hackathons with a purpose: the future of software development. IEEE Softw. 36(1), 15–22 (2019)
Petersen, K., et al.: Systematic mapping studies in software engineering. In: International Conference on Evaluation and Assessment in Software Engineering, pp. 68–77 (2008)
Porras, J., et al.: Hackathons in software engineering education: lessons learned from a decade of events. In: 2nd International Workshop on Software Engineering Education for Millennials, pp. 40–47 (2018)
Raatikainen, M. et al.: Industrial experiences of organizing a hackathon to assess a device-centric cloud ecosystem. In: IEEE Annual Computer Software and Applications Conference, pp. 790–799 (2013)
Rosell, B., Kumar, S., Shepherd, J.: Unleashing innovation through internal Hackathons. In: IEEE Innovations in Technology Conference, pp. 1–8 (2014)
Safarov, I.: Utilization of open government data: a systematic literature review of types, conditions, effects and users. Inf. Polity 22(1), 1–24 (2017)
Soussi, L.: Health vulnerabilities in software ecosystems: five cases of dying platforms. MS thesis. Utrech University (2018)
Valença, G., Alves, C.: A theory of power in emerging software ecosystems formed by small-to-medium enterprises. J. Syst. Softw. 13, 76–104 (2017)
Wieringa, R.: Requirements engineering paper classification and evaluation criteria: a proposal and a discussion. Requir. Eng. 11(1), 102–107 (2006)
Acknowledgements
This project was financially supported by the Brazilian National Research Council (CNPq), processes [430905/2018-1], [420801/2016-2] and [311256/2018-0].
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Appendix
Appendix
ID | Paper information |
|---|---|
S1 | Nolte, A., et al. You Hacked and Now What? Exploring Outcomes of a Corporate Hackathon. ACM on Human-Computer Interaction. 2018 |
S2 | Alkema, P. J., et al. Agile and hackathons: a case study of emergent practices at the FNB codefest. South African Institute of Computer Scientists and Information Technologists. ACM, 2017 |
S3 | Trainer, E. H., et al. Community code engagements: summer of code & hackathons for community building in scientific software. Int’l Conf. on Sup. Group Work. 2014 |
S4 | Frey, F. J. and Luks, M. The innovation-driven hackathon: one means for accelerating innovation. European Conf. on Pattern Languages of Programs. 2016 |
S5 | Grace, L. Deciphering Hackathons and Game Jams through Play. Int’l Conf. on Game Jams, Hackathons, and Game Creation Events. 2016 |
S6 | Izvalov, A., et al. Comparison of game creation and engineering hackathons on the global and local levels. Int’l Conf. on Game Jams, Hackathons, and Game Creation Events. 2017 |
S7 | Thomer, A. K., et al. Co-designing scientific software: Hackathons for participatory interface design. CHI Conf. Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems. 2016 |
S8 | Porras, J., et al. Hackathons in software engineering education: lessons learned from a decade of events. I’l Workshop on Software Eng. Education for Millennials. 2018 |
S9 | Raatikainen, M., et al. Industrial experiences of organizing a hackathon to assess a device-centric cloud ecosystem. Annual Computer Soft. and Applications Conf. 2013 |
S10 | Rosell, B., et al. Unleashing innovation through internal hackathons. Innovations in Technology Conference. 2014 |
S11 | Komssi, M., et al. What are hackathons for? IEEE Software 32 (5). 2015 |
S12 | Avalos, M., et al. Hackathons, semesterathons, and summerathons as vehicles to develop smart city local talent that via their innovations promote synergy between industry, academia, government and citizens. Int’l Smart Cities Conf. 2017 |
S13 | Pe-Than, E., et al. Designing Corporate Hackathons With a Purpose: The Future of Software Development. IEEE Software 36 (1). 2019 |
S14 | Tsukada, M., et al. Software defined media: Virtualization of audio-visual services. Int’l Conf. on Communications. 2017 |
S15 | Wittern, E., et al. A graph-based data model for API ecosystem insights. Int’l Conf. on Web Services. 2014 |
S16 | Saravi, S., et al. A Systems Engineering Hackathon – A Methodology Involving Multiple Stakeholders to Progress Conceptual Design of a Complex Engineered Product. IEEE Access 6. 2018 |
S17 | Kan, S., et al. Customer Experience Transformation in the Aviation Industry: Business Strategy Realization through Design Thinking, Innovation Management, and HPT. Performance Improvement 58 (1). 2019 |
S18 | Busby, B. and Lesko, A. M. Closing gaps between open software and public data in a hackathon setting: user-centered software prototyping. F1000Research 5. 2016 |
S19 | Helander, M., et al. Looking for great ideas: Analyzing the innovation jam. Workshop on Web Mining and Social Network Analysis. 2007 |
S20 | Flores, M., et al. How can hackathons accelerate corporate innovation?. Int’l Conf. on Advances in Production Management Systems. 2018 |
S21 | Lindtner, S., et al. Emerging sites of HCI innovation: hackerspaces, hardware startups & incubators. Conf. on Human Factors in Computing Systems. 2014 |
S22 | Dal Bianco, V., et al. The role of platform boundary resources in software ecosystems: A case study. Conf. on Software Architecture. 2014 |
S23 | Herala, Antti, et al. Strategy for Data: Open it or Hack it?. Journal of Theoretical and Applied Electronic Commerce Research 14 (2). 2019 |
S24 | Granados, C. and Pareja-Eastaway, M. How do collaborative practices contribute to innovation in large organisations? The case of hackathons. Innovation. 2019 |
S25 | Zukin, S. and Papadantonakis, M. Hackathons as Co-optation ritual: Socializing workers and institutionalizing innovation in the “new” economy. Precarious work. 2017 |
S26 | Alänge, S. and Steiber, A. Three operational models for ambidexterity in large corporations. Triple Helix 5 (1). 2018 |
S27 | Menon, K., et al. Industrial internet platforms: A conceptual evaluation from a product lifecycle management perspective. Journal of Eng. Manufacture 233 (5). 2018 |
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Valença, G., Lacerda, N., Rebelo, M.E., Alves, C., de Souza, C.R.B. (2019). On the Benefits of Corporate Hackathons for Software Ecosystems – A Systematic Mapping Study. In: Franch, X., Männistö, T., Martínez-Fernández, S. (eds) Product-Focused Software Process Improvement. PROFES 2019. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 11915. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-35333-9_27
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-35333-9_27
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-35332-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-35333-9
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)