Cross-border and domestic early-stage financial investment in 3D printing: An empirical perspective on drivers and locations

3D printing is a relatively new digital technology which can transform the way firms organize their innovation and production operations locally and globally. While 3D printing is being adopted by diverse organizations worldwide, empirical academic research on investment in early-stage 3D printing technology firms is still limited. In this paper, we consider the geography of the 3D printing ecosystem to illuminate the financing of investment into early state firms developing innovation in this technology. Using a hand-collected dataset of 500 firm-level investments, we hypothesize 3D printing investment is drawn to countries with greater innovative capacity, countries with greater human capital competencies, and countries with higher wages. We find that larger investments tend to benefit companies developing 3D printing technology in higher wage locations and in countries with higher innovative capacity level, suggesting that investments in the 3D printing ecosystems take places mostly in locations that already have an ecosystem in place. Our study is one of the first to examine detailed patterns of global investment in a new digital technology ecosystem - 3D printing, an increasingly important technology for innovation.