Entrepreneurship in Innovation Communities: Insights from 3D Printing Startups and the Dilemma of Open Source Hardware (Contributions to Management Science)

"Drawing on empirical insights from the field of desktop 3D printing, this book elaborates the concept of innovation communities as a pattern of open and distributed innovation. As these communities spur a fruitful exchange of explorative, open source knowledge, they represent a novel mode of "doing innovation", which considerably differs from established practices in market and business realms. Hence, the people that participate in these collective endeavors often develop entrepreneurial ambitions and start to exploit community-based innovations commercially. The book presents deep insights on the institutional idiosyncrasies of innovation communities, the associated dilemma of entrepreneurship and the strategies of 3D-printing startups to face the corresponding challenges."-- Provided by publisher Front Matter ....Pages i-xiii Believe Me, Don’t Believe the Hype (Jan-Peter Ferdinand)....Pages 1-12 Linking Commons, Communities, and Innovation (Jan-Peter Ferdinand)....Pages 13-34 Theorizing Innovation Communities (Jan-Peter Ferdinand)....Pages 35-67 Analytical Framework and Methodology (Jan-Peter Ferdinand)....Pages 69-81 Innovation Communities and the Dilemma of Entrepreneurship in the 3D Printing Field (Jan-Peter Ferdinand)....Pages 83-132 Field-Level Dynamics and the Gradual Disruption of the 3D Printing Community (Jan-Peter Ferdinand)....Pages 133-147 The Perils of Innovation Communities (Jan-Peter Ferdinand)....Pages 149-160 Back Matter ....Pages 161-170