Document Type

Dissertation

Date of Award

8-31-2020

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy in Business Data Science - (Ph.D.)

Department

School of Management

First Advisor

Haisu Zhang

Second Advisor

Haisu Zhang

Third Advisor

Cesar Bandera

Fourth Advisor

Ellen Thomas

Fifth Advisor

Yazhen Xiao

Sixth Advisor

Zhi Wei

Abstract

Three-dimensional printing or additive manufacturing is a new element in new product development that emphasizes on digitalization and innovation. However, due to its new emergence, existing research has rarely explored its mechanism and benefits especially in marketing, new product development and innovation. This research addresses the mechanism of 3D printing under collaborative consumption in the age of personal fabrication. The primary focus of this research lies at the intersection of marketing, 3D printing in collaborative consumption, and data science. Online peer-to-peer 3D printing sharing platform myminifactory.com is utilized as primary study context. In this research, two types of product design orientation, utilitarian design orientation and hedonic design orientation, and their respective effects in the 3D printing consumption process on online peer-to-peer sharing platforms are examined. Furthermore, this research examines two dimensions of relative product advantages, product commoditization and product innovativeness in 3D printing context.

Moreover, the level of complexity of 3D printing designs is introduced as a moderator in the model. The moderation effect of complexity in the relationship between product relative advantages and product consumption in 3D printing context further enlightens the mechanism of 3D printing in peer-to-peer sharing economy. Two types of data resources, secondary data and primary data, are collected for conducting the empirical study. For the empirical study, first, a secondary data of 420 projects from myminifactory.com are utilized. This information of secondary data sources then is utilized to conduct primary data. For primary data, an online survey is adopted to investigate the effect of product orientation and product relative advantages on product consumption.

Furthermore, the moderation effect of complexity level is investigated. Although the findings suggest that the two different product orientations have opposite effects on product relative advantages, the results emphasize that the two different product orientations both positively relate to the two relative product advantages. In addition, findings suggest that the level of complexity moderates the relationship between product innovativeness and the number of downloads.

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