  Company engagement in open source (OSS) is now the new norm. From large
technology companies to startups, companies are participating in the OSS
ecosystem by open-sourcing their technology, sponsoring projects through
funding or paid developer time. However, our understanding of the OSS ecosystem
is rooted in the 'old world' model where individual contributors sustain OSS
projects. In this work, we create a more comprehensive understanding of the
hybrid OSS landscape by investigating what motivates companies to contribute
and how they contribute to OSS. We conducted interviews with 20 participants
who have different roles (e.g., CEO, OSPO Lead, Ecosystem Strategist) at 17
different companies of different sizes from large companies (e.g. Microsoft,
RedHat, Google, Spotify) to startups. Data from semi-structured interviews
reveal that company motivations can be categorized into four levels (Founders'
Vision, Reputation, Business Advantage, and Reciprocity) and companies
participate through different mechanisms (e.g., Developers' Time, Mentoring
Time, Advocacy & Promotion Time), each of which tie to the different types of
motivations. We hope our findings nudge more companies to participate in the
OSS ecosystem, helping make it robust, diverse, and sustainable.
