PONE-D-23-37978Explore an Open-Source Value Co-Creation Framework: A Multiple Case Study in ChinaPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Luo,

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Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Partly

Reviewer #3: Yes

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2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: N/A

Reviewer #3: Yes

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3. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

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4. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

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5. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: Some suggestions to the authors:

1. The authors need to highlight in brief why open-source value cocreation(OSVCC) is very important topic in the abstract

2. It is not necessary to include the sub-section after the conclusion such as 5.1, 5.2 & 5.3.

3. It is good for the authors to summarize the Conclusion and not too details.

Reviewer #2: The paper describes an Open-Source Value Co-Creation Framework based on case studies. Such an open-source value framework may be invaluable to organizations exploring the pros and cons of adopting open-source software in enterprise systems and the engagement with OS teams.

Major comments:

Though the case study is confined to a particular geographic location, an attempt should be made to make the findings generalizable. Such an attempt is conspicuously missing in this approach. Please comment on why the authors consider that the framework applies only to one region. More specifically, how is the Chinese context different from the global context?

This reviewer considers the lack of interviews as a data collection method, as a major limitation.

Theoretical conceptualization to a theory from the described relationship is missing. Perhaps that is the reason for doubts about generalizability.

Minor comments

Prior work in the introduction section needs to be organized better, describing how prior work in this domain led the authors to this research question.

It is not clear how the two-stage model of OSC relates to business ecosystem theory.

The "commercial dimension" in HCM seems to be ill-defined.

Reviewer #3: It’s a pleasure to review this manuscript addressing a significant issue. Some suggestions are proposed as follows.

1. Since value co-creation is the essential concept of this study, it is expected to have more support from the literature.

2. The authors proposed an excellent classification model based on the business ecosystem and open innovation theory; readers would expect some discussion on the rationale and background.

3. The quality aspect of the case study methodology could be addressed.

4. Readers would like more explanations on the proposed conceptual framework of OSVCC.

5. The managerial implications could discuss the implementation issues regarding the value co-creation of OSCs.

6. Authors comment on one of the limitations of their study, which only examined four Chinese OSCs, which might differ from other well-known open source projects born in the United States. After this study, it seems they should have some standpoints.

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

Reviewer #3: No

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PONE-D-23-37978R1Explore an Open-Source Value Co-Creation Framework: A Multiple Case StudyPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Luo,

Thank you for submitting your manuscript to PLOS ONE. After careful consideration, we feel that it has merit but does not fully meet PLOS ONE’s publication criteria as it currently stands. Therefore, we invite you to submit a revised version of the manuscript that addresses the points raised during the review process.

Please submit your revised manuscript by Aug 21 2024 11:59PM. If you will need more time than this to complete your revisions, please reply to this message or contact the journal office at plosone@plos.org. When you're ready to submit your revision, log on to https://www.editorialmanager.com/pone/ and select the 'Submissions Needing Revision' folder to locate your manuscript file.

Please include the following items when submitting your revised manuscript:

• A rebuttal letter that responds to each point raised by the academic editor and reviewers. You should upload this letter as a separate file labeled 'Response to Reviewers'.
• A marked-up copy of your manuscript that highlights changes made to the original version. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Revised Manuscript with Track Changes'.
• An unmarked version of your revised paper without tracked changes. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Manuscript'.

If you would like to make changes to your financial disclosure, please include your updated statement in your cover letter. Guidelines for resubmitting your figure files are available below the reviewer comments at the end of this letter.

If applicable, we recommend that you deposit your laboratory protocols in protocols.io to enhance the reproducibility of your results. Protocols.io assigns your protocol its own identifier (DOI) so that it can be cited independently in the future. For instructions see: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/submission-guidelines#loc-laboratory-protocols. Additionally, PLOS ONE offers an option for publishing peer-reviewed Lab Protocol articles, which describe protocols hosted on protocols.io. Read more information on sharing protocols at https://plos.org/protocols?utm_medium=editorial-email&utm_source=authorletters&utm_campaign=protocols.

We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Kind regards,

Silvia Escribano Cubas

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Journal Requirements:

Please review your reference list to ensure that it is complete and correct. If you have cited papers that have been retracted, please include the rationale for doing so in the manuscript text, or remove these references and replace them with relevant current references. Any changes to the reference list should be mentioned in the rebuttal letter that accompanies your revised manuscript. If you need to cite a retracted article, indicate the article’s retracted status in the References list and also include a citation and full reference for the retraction notice.

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Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. If the authors have adequately addressed your comments raised in a previous round of review and you feel that this manuscript is now acceptable for publication, you may indicate that here to bypass the “Comments to the Author” section, enter your conflict of interest statement in the “Confidential to Editor” section, and submit your "Accept" recommendation.

Reviewer #1: All comments have been addressed

Reviewer #3: (No Response)

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2. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #3: Partly

**********

3. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

**********

4. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #3: No

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5. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #3: No

**********

6. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: To improve some of the citations especially for the article having more than 2 authors. For example Payne, Storbacka and Frow (2008) should be replaced with Payne et al. (2008)

Reviewer #3: It’s a great pleasure to review this manuscript, which addresses issues I am interested in. My primary concerns are as follows.

1. As value co-creation (VCC) is the core concept of this study, a solid theoretical background could be supported first. Then come the features and challenges of open-source communities that lead to the introduction of the OSVCC

2. Since VCC is an essential part of service-dominant logic, the authors could comment on the differences between service-dominant, customer-dominant, and OSVCC.

3. VCC models could be presented in a more organized manner, stressing this study's differentiated advantages.

4. The authors could defend their combining use of the business ecosystem theory and the open innovation theory with in-depth elaborations.

5. The case selection criteria might be vague and ambiguous; therefore, some concrete requirements are suggested.

6. The comparative analyses could be conducted more formally and systematically.

7. The conclusions could stress the theoretical and managerial implications more significantly.

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7. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean?). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files.

If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public.

Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review? For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy.

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #3: No

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[NOTE: If reviewer comments were submitted as an attachment file, they will be attached to this email and accessible via the submission site. Please log into your account, locate the manuscript record, and check for the action link "View Attachments". If this link does not appear, there are no attachment files.]

While revising your submission, please upload your figure files to the Preflight Analysis and Conversion Engine (PACE) digital diagnostic tool, https://pacev2.apexcovantage.com/. PACE helps ensure that figures meet PLOS requirements. To use PACE, you must first register as a user. Registration is free. Then, login and navigate to the UPLOAD tab, where you will find detailed instructions on how to use the tool. If you encounter any issues or have any questions when using PACE, please email PLOS at figures@plos.org. Please note that Supporting Information files do not need this step.

Explore an Open-Source Value Co-Creation Framework: A Multiple Case Study

PONE-D-23-37978R2

Dear Luo,

We’re pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it meets all outstanding technical requirements.

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Kind regards,

Silvia Escribano Cubas

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE