The Digital Revolution, 3D Printing, and Innovation as Data

Abstract

The digital revolution has created a data-rich environment. Increasingly, firms are seeking to acquire and analyze a variety of consumer data such as online shopping, social media, and web browsing behavior to enhance their innovation activities. This approach is termed "Innovation from Data." At the same time, a growing number of consumers are gaining the ability to transform digital data into innovative physical products through the use of new tools such as audio and video editing software and 3D printing technology. This approach is termed "Innovation as Data." These two approaches differ substantially in terms of their views on the role of consumers, the relevance of firms, and the nature of products. This article introduces the concept of Innovation as Data and discusses its relation to the digital revolution in general and 3D printing in particular. In addition, it offers a set of recommendations for managers seeking to leverage this new innovation approach and ideas for scholars interested in researching this intriguing domain. Practitioner PointsFirms are currently in the midst of a second digital revolution.This revolution will digitize physical goods much like the first digital revolution digitized information goods.Firms can employ 3D printing technology to reap the opportunities of this new revolution.

Disruptive Innovation: Conceptual Foundations, Empirical Evidence, and Research Opportunities in the Digital Age

“…Adding services to the product may create “economics of scope in use,” by allowing firms to learn about their products (and potential extensions and ramifications to problems encountered) (Ye, Priem, and Alshwer, ). This creates, what Rindfleisch et al ( *) labeled as innovation as data where “[…] firms acquire, analyze, and act upon consumer data to enhance their innovation activities.” Here, consumers play a central role in developing, adapting, and modifying existing products, thus creating innovations. An example is the Lego community discussed extensively in Hienerth, Lettl, and Keinz (), where consumers become part of the innovation process.…”

“…It probably also forces us to re‐think the nature of property rights, as we have seen revisions and reconsiderations over the past four decades moving from the age of natural resources (Demsetz, ), to the emergence of multiproduct‐multinational organizations (Hart and Moore, ), and last to the mobility of human capital (Rajan and Zingales, ). Yet again, we see a new resource—information—that is free and can easily move around thus shifting the boundaries of the firm (Hofman, Faems, and Schleimer, ; Rindfleisch et al, * ). Alas, we are without doubt in need of a revised definition of property rights to safeguard intellectual assets (Lindsay and Hopkins, * ) in the presence of business model innovation and an era of the internet of things, the algorithmic economy, and platform innovation.…”

Innovation Research Themes for Our Changing Environment: Insights from the 2019 PDMA Doctoral Consortium

“…The emergence of new technologies can dramatically alter the behaviors of both firms and consumers (Rindfleisch, O’Hern, and Sachdev, ). For example, the development of social media reshaped the manner in which consumers obtained and transmitted information about new products (Lamberton and Stephen, ).…”

“…Most of these articles have focused on two specific technologies: (1) social media (e.g., Marion, Barczak, and Hultnik, ; Moe and Schweidel, ; Roberts and Candi, ) and (2) big data (e.g., Chandy, Hassan, and Mukherji, ; Johnson, Friend, and Lee, ; Sorescu, ). In contrast, research on other emerging technologies such as augmented reality, artificial intelligence, blockchain, robotics, and 3D printing have received little attention to date (see Rindfleisch et al’s, recent essay on 3D printing for an exception).…”

Creativity and productivity in product design for additive manufacturing: Mechanisms and platform outcomes of remixing

“…To address this problem, they propose the PARTs framework, which facilitates the specification of design intent through graphical means. Finally, in the field of innovation management, Rindfleisch et al (, p. 3) conceptualize remixing as a form of data generation that “directly results in a new digital offering that can then be materialized with a 3D printer.” They consider remixing for AM to be an example of ‘innovation as data,’ where the data itself (the remix) is the innovation. They contrast this with the popular approach ‘innovation from data,’ where data is used to guide decision‐making in innovation processes.…”