Open Innovation, Co-Creation and Mass Customisation : What Role for 3D Printing Platforms?

Both open innovation and 3D printing technologies have attracted a lot of attention recently. Our main aim is to investigate the role of online 3D printing platforms in open innovation with customers. There are four main contributions in this paper. Firstly, it offers a better understanding of the relationship between open innovation, co-creation and mass customisation and indicates in which case they overlap. Secondly, it provides an ‘inside-outside’ typology of co-creation that enables to classify co-creation activities according to their aim and type of collaboration. The third main contribution is a typology of online 3D printing platforms, based on their core services. Finally, by combining the two typologies, we are able to demonstrate the role played by each platform based on type of co-creation activity considered