Consumer preferences for personal 3D printing technology: The case in South Korea

The innovative manufacturing technique of 3D printing has attracted attention because of a growing need for increased flexibility and the technology’s ability to provide economic low volume production. Identifying the factors influencing consumer adoption of 3D printing technology could cement the technology’s success. This research analyzes consumers’ preferences for personal 3D printers and presents a market simulation of their adoption rate. A choice experiment obtains stated preference data analyzed by using a mixed logit model. The results show that the major buyers of personal 3D printers are male consumers between 20 and 29 years of age. Consumers consider the purchase price, the possibility of an error occurring, and the possible printing items of a 3D printer as the top three important attributes. Moreover, consumers are willing to pay an additional 76,852 Korean won for the personal 3D printer that produces the high quality items, which is the highest amount among other attributes. Market simulation results demonstrate that consumer adoption rates increase from 12.28% to 29.12% for household items, 13.23% to 24.98% for fashion items, and 12.19% to 26.57% for food items as the purchase price decreases from 1.5 to 0.1 million Korean won.