Is 3D Printing a myth and hype to achieve sustainability? Evidence from Chinese manufacturing firms

Abstract

The immense sustainability challenges facing by organization today have warranted research effort towards exploring industry 4.0 technology such as 3D Printing for new business model innovation. But how firms could leverage 3D Printing achieve sustainability needs more empirical studies, in particular, there are disconnect between industry 4.0-enabling technology and circular economy for sustainability. We seek to contribute to the current literature by weaving the interconnectedness of abovementioned topics. Through 16 semi-structured interviews with Chinese manufacturing sector who has adopted, our result confirmed the role of 3D Printing contributes to sustainability. The result of our investigation shows that 3D Printing firms who successfully reap the benefit to realize circular economy principle will achieve economic benefit; firms realized all dimensions of sustainability when 3D Printing at product and product offerings base on circular economy principle are met in production process, evidenced by spare part and automobile industry. Our study concludes with theoretical and managerial implications.

Keywords:

• Industry 4.0
• 3D printing
• circular economy principle
• sustainability
• manufacturing

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the editor and anonymous reviewers for the valuable and constructive comments, which have led to a significant improvement in the manuscript.

Research ethics approval

Research ethics of this work have been approved by the research ethics committee of the University of Nottingham Ningbo China.

Disclosure statement

The authors report there are no competing interests to declare.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Major Project of the Ningbo-Chinese Academy of Social Science Strategic Collaborations Research Fund under Grant [NZKT201701]; Ningbo Research Base on Dual Circulation and Economic Development under Grant [JD5-FZ40]; and the Arts and Humanities Research Council under the Grant [AH/V015761/1].

Notes on contributors

Jia Jia Lim

Jia Jia Lim, PhD, is Assistant Professor at International Business School, Zhejiang University. Her research interests include digital transformation, buyer-supplier relationships, sustainability. Her research appears in International Journal of Operation and Production Management, International Journal of Production Economics, Journal of Business Research.

Jing Dai

Jing Dai, PhD, is a Professor in Operations Management at Nottingham University Business School China. She is the recipient of Graduate Research Excellence Award at Iowa State University, USA where she earned a PhD in Supply Chain Management. Her research interest is in the fields of sustainable operations, green supply chain management and supply chain digitalisation. Prof. Dai has published extensively in leading international operations, logistics and supply chain management journals. She also received Best Paper Award in the Journal of Operations Management.

Carman K. M. Lee

Carman K. M. Lee, PhD, is an Associate Professor at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, where she obtained her PhD degree. She was awarded the Bronze Award of the 16th China National Invention Exhibition Award in 2006 and Outstanding Professional Service and Innovation Award. Dr Lee’s current research areas include logistics information management, smart manufacturing, application of the internet of things and data mining techniques.

Hing Kai Chan

Hing Kai Chan, PhD, is a Professor of Operations Management at Nottingham University Business School China. He obtained his PhD degree from The University of Hong Kong. His research interest is in the fields of sustainable operations and supply chain, modelling and simulation and technology adoption. Prof Chan has published over 160 international papers in leading operations and supply chain management journals, such as Production and Operations Management.