%0 Journal Article %J Technology Innovation Management Review %D 2011 %T Business Ecosystems as Institutions of Participation: A Systems Perspective on Community-Developed Platforms %A Steven Muegge %K architecture of participation %K business ecosystem %K community-developed platform %K institutional analysis and design (IAD) %K meritocratic developer community %X This article introduces a systems perspective on community-developed platforms and the institutions that structure participation by individuals and companies. It brings together the past research about technology platforms, company participation in business ecosystems, and individual participation in developer communities, and links these codependent subsystems through resource flows, interconnected institutional arrangements, and shared governance. To achieve this synthesis, it draws on conceptual arguments from a broad range of sources, including Elinor Ostrom's research program on the economics of sustainable commons governance, Tim O'Reilly's practitioner essays about the architecture of participation, and prior management research on modularity and design, resource dependence, and systems thinking. The resulting “systems of systems” perspective is parsimonious and insightful for entrepreneurs, managers, and community leaders. %B Technology Innovation Management Review %I Talent First Network %C Ottawa %V 1 %P 4-13 %8 11/2011 %U http://timreview.ca/article/495 %N 2 %1 Carleton University Steven Muegge is a faculty member at the Sprott School of Business at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, where he teaches within the Technology Innovation Management (TIM) program. His research interests include open and distributed innovation, entrepreneurship around community-developed platforms, and product development. The ideas presented in this article were an outcome of his doctoral research on participation in business ecosystems. %R http://doi.org/10.22215/timreview/495