The extent of actor heterogeneity is known to influence the outcomes in natural resource commons, and scholars have recently begun addressed the impact of heterogeneity on knowledge commons creation and sustainability. There is increasing evidence to challenge the dominant theory that heterogeneity is uniformly disadvantageous, but little is known about heterogeneity in knowledge commons. Here, we analyse heterogeneity as it applies to rules for governing a knowledge commons – the DNA barcode commons. DNA barcodes are short, standardized gene regions that can be used to inexpensively identify unknown specimens, and proponents have led international efforts to make DNA barcodes a standard species identification tool. The dominant actors in the commons are researchers in diverse fields, and the global scope of barcoding means these researchers work in countries with varying levels of biodiversity, research infrastructure, and financial resources for scientific endeavours. This cultural and wealth heterogeneity among actors results in challenges for constructing and governing the commons, including its supporting infrastructure of databases and biorepositories. We interviewed participants in DNA barcoding, and collected organizational documents. We applied the grammar of institutions to identify institutional statements, and categorized each statement based on institutional logics theory. We found that institutional logics theory is an effective applied research tool to study heterogeneity in knowledge commons. Our analysis also suggested that heterogeneity is a challenge to developing shared expectations in global knowledge commons, but participants can design institutional statements to bridge gaps in expectations.

中文翻译：

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异质性在全球知识共享中的影响：对DNA条码共享治理的含义。

众所周知，参与者异质性的程度会影响自然资源公地的成果，并且学者们最近开始研究异质性对知识公地创造和可持续性的影响。越来越多的证据挑战主流理论，即异质性总是不利的，但对知识共享中的异质性知之甚少。在这里，我们分析了异质性，因为异质性适用于管理知识共享的规则-DNA条码共享。DNA条形码是较短的标准化基因区域，可用于廉价地鉴定未知标本，并且支持者已在国际上做出了努力，使DNA条形码成为标准的物种识别工具。公地的主要参与者是各个领域的研究人员，条形码的全球范围意味着这些研究人员在生物多样性，研究基础设施和财务资源水平各异的国家开展科学工作。行为者之间文化和财富的异质性给构建和管理公地带来挑战，包括其支持的数据库和生物资源库基础设施。我们采访了DNA条形码的参与者，并收集了组织文件。我们运用制度的语法来识别制度陈述，并根据制度逻辑理论对每个陈述进行分类。我们发现制度逻辑理论是研究知识共享异质性的有效应用研究工具。