Open source projects have become mainstream in the software industry and are now spreading to other industrial sectors. In these heterogenous ecosystems based on open property rights, customers mix with retired specialists, teenagers, employees, or competitor copycats. No matter the status, each participant gets the same free access to the value of the product. This is pushing firms in these sectors to seek new configurations of business model. This article aims at understanding how to create ecosystems where value is available for free to anyone while still providing attractive offerings to paying customers. Through a qualitative exploration of high-level managers' views on their business models, we demonstrate that opening property rights leads to value loss when the ecosystem is not addressed simultaneously. Only open source experts understand how to implement a double-sided open source business model and how to benefit from its network externalities.
