Essay Example on According to Afuah 2004 business model can be considered as a tool for making money

According to Afuah 2004 business model can be considered as a tool for making money To clarify it is a set of activities which a firm performs how it performs them and when it performs them so as to offer its customers benefits they want and to earn profit Afuah 2004 After 765 interviews with CEOs around the world IBM revealed that the companies were spending their innovation efforts on business model had improved faster than the competitors IBM Global Business Services 2006 Nunes and Breene 2011 believe they success in business by creating new business models after identifying the changes in customer needs Margetta 2002 claim a good business model start from observing human motivations and ending in plenty of value Currently 3D printing technology has a considerable number of characteristics that can be sources of value First of all it is a mass customization technology and offers personalized consumption experience for customers Hague et al 2003 Gibson et al 2010 Moreover 3D printing also allows companies to reduce overhead costs Hopkinson et al 2006 Furthermore due to its mass customization characteristics companies can quickly react to changes of market or trend Hopkinson et al 2006 

All of the above mentioned advantages can help a company open business by proposing value to customers and get a part of the value created Afuah 2014 Zott and Amit 2010 developed a business model as a system of interdependent activities within and across the company boundaries This system helps the company and its partners not only to create value but also to capture a part of that value As an illustration the personalization characteristic of 3D printing may transfer the productive activities from the manufacturer to the consumer Besides with the development of Web 2 0 manufacturers and consumers have more methods to direct connect with each other Wirtz et al 2010 The possibility of transferring value-adding activities from the manufacturer to the consumer is a significant implication of 3D printing Bogers et al 2016 In general it is essential to build a business model for 3D printing since a company would hardly create value if they could not commercialize that technology in an effective way Chesbrough and Rosenbloom 2002 

Wohlers 2013 points out there is a rapid change of the personal desktop printers since 2007 to 2012 It is safe to say that the prices of a personal 3D printer will reasonably decrease in the future so there will be more consumers who also owns a personal 3D printer Wohlers 2014 Moreover completely consumer-centric production systems can point out the personalization of manufacturing Bogers et al 2016 Particularly in order to increase the individualization of a unique consumer manufacturers can propose customers who own a 3D printer opportunities to produce their own portions With the advancements of the Internet manufacturers can provide an online service design to support and satisfy consumers Furthermore manufacturers may also suggest printing methods for consumers who have their own designs which may be shared with others giving a chance to form a dynamic community Lakhani and von Hippel 2003 Besides manufacturers can gain profit by charging for printing document since it may be shared and used by many users this also create high lock in definitely