Sustainability orientation, the adoption of 3D printing technologies, and new product performance: A cross-institutional study of American and Indian firms

Developing new products that can address the triple bottom line of sustainability poses one of the grand challenges in our time. This study is among the first to examine how the adoption of 3D printing (3DP) technologies mediates the impact of firms’ sustainability orientation (SO) on new product performance. We use a mixed-methods design. First, we conduct qualitative interviews in the U.S. and India and find that firms adopt 3DP technologies in two stages: acquisition and application. We then conduct a quantitative study based on large-scale surveys in these two countries and the results show that SO has a stronger positive effect on the acquisition of 3DP technologies in U.S. firms than in Indian ones, but it has a stronger positive effect on the application of 3DP technologies in India than in the U.S. Moreover, the application of 3DP technologies partially mediates the effects of SO on new product performance in Indian firms but not in U.S. firms. This study enriches our understanding of how SO influences new product performance by distinguishing between stages in the adoption of 3DP technologies and shows that the impacts of SO on distinct stages in the adoption process differ between developing and developed countries.