Boundary resources have been shown to enable the arm’s-length relationships between platform owners and third-party developers that underlie digital innovation in platform ecosystems. While boundary resources that are owned by open-source communities and small-scale software vendors are also critical components in the digital infrastructure, their role in digital innovation has yet to be systematically explored. In particular, software libraries are popular boundary resources that provide functionality without the need for continued interaction with their owners. They are used extensively by commercial vendors to enable customization of their software products, by communities to disseminate open-source software, and by big-tech platform owners to provide functionality that does not involve control. This article reports on the deployment of such software libraries in the web and mobile (Android) contexts by 107 start-up companies in London. Our findings show that libraries owned by big-tech companies, product vendors, and communities coexist; that the deployment of big-tech libraries is unaffected by the scale of the deploying start-up; and that context evolution paths are consequential for library deployment. These findings portray a balanced picture of digital infrastructure as neither the community-based utopia of early open-source research nor the dystopia of the recent digital dominance literature.

中文翻译：

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数字基础设施的所有权：探索在数字创新集群中部署软件库

边界资源已被证明可以实现平台所有者和第三方开发商之间的公平关系，这是平台生态系统中数字创新的基础。虽然开源社区和小规模软件供应商拥有的边界资源也是数字基础设施的关键组成部分，但它们在数字创新中的作用还有待系统探索。特别是，软件库是流行的边界资源，无需与其所有者持续交互即可提供功能。商业供应商广泛使用它们来实现其软件产品的定制，社区传播开源软件，以及大型技术平台所有者提供不涉及控制的功能。本文报告了伦敦 107 家初创公司在 Web 和移动 (Android) 环境中部署此类软件库的情况。我们的研究结果表明，大型科技公司、产品供应商和社区拥有的图书馆共存；大型科技图书馆的部署不受部署初创公司规模的影响；并且上下文演化路径对于库部署是重要的。这些发现描绘了数字基础设施的平衡图景，既不是早期开源研究的基于社区的乌托邦，也不是最近数字主导文献的反乌托邦。大型科技图书馆的部署不受部署初创公司规模的影响；并且上下文演变路径对于库部署是重要的。这些发现描绘了数字基础设施的平衡图景，既不是早期开源研究的基于社区的乌托邦，也不是最近数字主导文献的反乌托邦。大型科技图书馆的部署不受部署初创公司规模的影响；并且上下文演化路径对于库部署是重要的。这些发现描绘了数字基础设施的平衡图景，既不是早期开源研究的基于社区的乌托邦，也不是最近数字主导文献的反乌托邦。