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.

Presents an integrated view on innovation communities and entrepreneurship Features the trending topic of open source hardware Provides empirical insights on how founders respond to challenges of hardware startups

Autorentext
Jan-Peter Ferdinand is a sociologist with focus on organizations and management science. His research addresses the nexus of emerging technologies and markets as well as novel modes of open and distributed innovation.

Inhalt
Chapter 1: Believe me, don't believe the hype.- Chapter 2: Linking commons, communities, and innovation.- Chapter 3: Theorizing innovation communities.- Chapter 4: Analytical framework and methodology.- Chapter 5: Innovation communities & the dilemma of entrepreneurship in the 3D printing field.- Chapter 6: Field-level dynamics and the gradual disruption of the 3D printing community.- Chapter 7: The perils of innovation communities.