Developer-Led Adoption of Open Source Software Libraries: A Conceptual Model

Researchers have historically viewed Open Source Software (OSS) as a homogenous group of technologies and assumed adoption behaviors are uniform among OSS types. Focus on specific OSS types is rare and OSS libraries, in particular, have been underrepresented. This paper recognizes the unique characteristics of OSS libraries and notes that their adoption may receive less organizational scrutiny than other software packages. A conceptual model based on an augmented theory of Task Technology Fit (TTF) is offered to provide insight into OSS library adoption. If supported, this model represents not only a theoretical contribution to the OSS literature, but a source of actionable information for practitioners engaged in software development.