Attracting new developers is crucial for the sustained success of open-source software (OSS) projects.
Accordingly, existing research has extensively studied factors that can attract new developers, while most studies have focused on project or task c...
Attracting new developers is crucial for the sustained success of open-source software (OSS) projects.
Accordingly, existing research has extensively studied factors that can attract new developers, while most studies have focused on project or task characteristics, with relatively little research on governance. This study focuses on empirically demonstrating that governance can also make a significant contribution to attracting new developers. For this purpose, based on data collected from GitHub on 835 projects, we empirically examined the impact of decision-making structures on attracting new developers and the moderating effects of project age and size on this relationship. The analysis revealed that a polyarchical decision-making structure has a positive effect on attracting new developers, and this effect is amplified as the project ages and grows in size. Based on these findings, the study provides implications for the role of governance in future OSS projects.