Keynote talk as part of "Printing, Innovation and Business Models" track at 2019 R&D Management Conference in Paris, June 19, 2019

1. Economic and Business
Research on 3D Printing
Joel West
KGI – Keck Graduate Institute
The Claremont Colleges
R&D Management Conference 2019
19 Juin 2019

2. Agenda
• Brief history of 3DP
• 3DP biz-econ research
• Developing higher impact research
• Moving forward

3. Previous 3D Printing Conferences
• “The Business and Economic
Impacts of 3D Printing”
• RWTH Aachen, June 2014
• “3D Printing Paris 2018
Conference”
• École Polytechnique, June 2018

4. A Brief History of 3D Printing

5. • 3D printing is 30+ years old
• Started with niche industrial markets
• Proliferation of patented technologies, new firms
• Limited applications due to price, performance
• Now: larger consumer markets
• Leveraging open source hardware
• Reaching hobbyist market like early PCs
• Still no “killer app”
• Today: a $5-10 billion market
3D Printer Market

6. Process
First Patent
(Priority Date)
Key Inventor
(Employer) Feedstock
Stereolithography
(SLA)
1984 Chuck Hill (UVP, later
3D Systems)
Liquid plastic
Selective Laser
Sintering (SLS)
1986 Carl Deckard (U. Texas) Plastic or metal
powder
Fused Deposition
Modeling (FDM)
1989 Scott Crump (Stratasys) Continuous spool of
plastic (later metal)
Three-Dimensional
Printing (3DP)
1989 Michael Cima,
Emmanual Sachs (MIT)
Liquid plastic or
plastic-metal
PolyJet 1999 Hanan Gothait (Objet) Liquid plastic
Key 3D Printing Technologies
Source: West & Kuk (2016)

7. • Chuck Hill
• Invented stereolithography and 3D printing (1984)
• Laser dries points in pool of liquid resin
• Founded 3D Systems (1986)
• IPO: 1987
• Growth much slower than expected
3D Systems

8. • Scott Crump
• Invented fused deposition modeling (1989)
• Inspired by a glue gun, cheap spool of plastic (or metal)
• Founded Stratasys (1989)
• IPO: 1994
• Growing via M&A
• Merged with Objet (2012)
• Bought MakerBot (2013)
Stratasys

9. • Three segments: hardware, materials, services
• Industrial vs. other B2B vs. consumer
• 3D Systems/Stratasys stagnant
• Each with unprofitable with flat revenues $0.7b/year
• New entrants, fragmentation with patent expiration
• Industrial market ca. $2b/year (Wohlers)
• Rapid growth in other markets
• Consumer, healthcare (prosthetics)
• ≈$10b in 2018, $14b in 2019 (IDC)
3D Printing Today

10. Open Source Software
Talent pool is limited
•Not everyone is a
programmer
•Not everyone will
contribute to OSS
3D Printing
Talent pool is limited
•Not everyone is a 3D
designer/sculptor
•Not everyone can design
own 3D printable objects
Despite DIY Hype, Limited Contributor Pool

11. 3D Printing Biz-Econ Research

12. 81 SSCI papers published 2008-2018
Bus/Econ Research Thus Far
SSCI: Business, management, economics; “3d printer” or “3d printing”
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018

13. • Adoption
• Overall
• Creating new markets (niches)
• Business models
• Competitive advantage
• Policy: regulation & subsidies
• Technology/cost limitations
Managerial Questions

14. • Short-run manufacturing
• Online collaboration
• Print on demand
• Sustainable supply chains
• RepRap
• Makerspaces
Phenomena

15. • Adoption
• Business models/strategies
• Digitalization: physical objects, online collaboration
• Impacts: manufacturing, supply chain, sustainability,
societal, other
• Open innovation, collaboration, IP
• Policy
Theoretical Issues

16. Cite Authors Title Who Cites
116 Rayna & Striukova …How 3D printing is changing business model innovation 3D printing, supply chain
108 Baumers et al The cost of additive manufacturing… 3D printing, supply chain
55
Bogers, Hadar,
Bilberg
Additive manufacturing for consumer-centric business models … 3D printing, business models
40 Jiang, Kleer, Piller Predicting the future of additive manufacturing: A Delphi study… 3D printing, Delphi studies
32 Sandström
…emergence of an ecosystem for 3D Printing—Insights from the
hearing aid industry's transition…
3D printing, manufacturing
35
Ford, Mortara,
Minshall
…Introduction to the Special Issue
3D printing, knowledge
brokers
25 Jia et al
…supply chain-centric business models in 3D chocolate printing: A
simulation study
3D printing, food 3D printing
21 West & Kuk How MakerBot leveraged Thingiverse in 3D printing …
3D printing, innovation
communities
Most Cited Journal: TFSC
30% of citations come from 17 articles in TFSC

17. Going Forward

18. • Continuing recommendations
• Community of researchers, conference tracks, beyond
Europe
• Funding for PhD/postdoc students
• More rigorous research
• Strong empirics
• Stronger theory, more general contribution
• Get beyond the phenomenon
Recommendations

19. • Ben-Ner & Siemsen, Calif. Management Review, 2017
• Garmulewicz et al, Calif. Management Review, 2018
• Unruh, Calif. Management Review, 2018
• d’Aveni, Harvard Business Review, 2015
• Rindfleisch, J. of Product Innovation Management, 2017
• Kyriakou et al, MIS Quarterly, 2017
• Greul et al, Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, 2018
A/A* Publications

20. • Most papers have implications for 3D printing
• Can we find implications beyond 3D printing?
• Learning from other literatures:
• Open source:
• Managing online communities
• Coordinating, governing decentralized production
• Fine-tuning degrees of openness
• Crowdsourcing:
• Matching seekers/solvers
• Motivating contributors
• Optimizing collaboration models
Getting Beyond the Phenomenon

21. Having an Impact
AOM Session #1724: Tuesday Aug 13, 8am

22. Thank You