IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/tefoso/v213y2025ics0040162525000721.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Critical successes factors for the adoption of additive manufacturing: Integrated impact for circular economy model

Author

Listed:
  • Aslam, Javed
  • Saleem, Aqeela
  • Lai, Kee-hung
  • Kim, Yun Bae

Abstract

Additive manufacturing (AM) or three-dimensional (3D) printing is an emerging technology shaping the manufacturing industry, offering performance improvement opportunities for society and the economy. AM supports the circular economy (CE) by enabling sustainable consumption and production. This study identifies factors of performance expectancy, effort expectancy, facilitating conditions, social influence, environmental sustainability, social sustainability, technical efficacy, and government support to determine the adoption of AM with survey data collected from 487 managers of manufacturing enterprises. The study proposed a theoretical framework that integrates the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) and the Technology-Organization-Environment (TOE), providing valuable insight that can guide future research and inform decision-making in the industry. The study revealed that identified critical success factors have significantly influenced AM implementation. Furthermore, how AM adoption supports the implementation of CE, a new production and consumption model promoting sustainable growth. The study guides the managers in the connection between the AM and CE models and suggests implementing CE practices as an integral part of their AM adoption strategy.

Suggested Citation

  • Aslam, Javed & Saleem, Aqeela & Lai, Kee-hung & Kim, Yun Bae, 2025. "Critical successes factors for the adoption of additive manufacturing: Integrated impact for circular economy model," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 213(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:tefoso:v:213:y:2025:i:c:s0040162525000721
    DOI: 10.1016/j.techfore.2025.124041
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0040162525000721
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.techfore.2025.124041?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    --->

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Pina Puntillo, 2023. "Circular economy business models: Towards achieving sustainable development goals in the waste management sector—Empirical evidence and theoretical implications," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(2), pages 941-954, March.
    2. Natalie Leesakul & Anne-Marie Oostveen & Iveta Eimontaite & Max L. Wilson & Richard Hyde, 2022. "Workplace 4.0: Exploring the Implications of Technology Adoption in Digital Manufacturing on a Sustainable Workforce," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-24, March.
    3. Ajzen, Icek, 1991. "The theory of planned behavior," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 50(2), pages 179-211, December.
    4. Chamari Pamoshika Jayarathna & Duzgun Agdas & Les Dawes, 2023. "Exploring sustainable logistics practices toward a circular economy: A value creation perspective," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(1), pages 704-720, January.
    5. Kristoffersen, Eivind & Blomsma, Fenna & Mikalef, Patrick & Li, Jingyue, 2020. "The smart circular economy: A digital-enabled circular strategies framework for manufacturing companies," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 241-261.
    6. Bianco, Débora & Bueno, Adauto & Godinho Filho, Moacir & Latan, Hengky & Miller Devós Ganga, Gilberto & Frank, Alejandro G. & Chiappetta Jabbour, Charbel Jose, 2023. "The role of Industry 4.0 in developing resilience for manufacturing companies during COVID-19," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 256(C).
    7. Yeh, Ching-Chiang & Chen, Yi-Fan, 2018. "Critical success factors for adoption of 3D printing," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 209-216.
    8. Guo, Zhangdong & Chen, Xiaoqi & Zhang, Yongwang, 2022. "Impact of environmental regulation perception on farmers' agricultural green production technology adoption: A new perspective of social capital," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    9. Patrick Holzmann & Erich J. Schwarz & David B. Audretsch, 2020. "Understanding the determinants of novel technology adoption among teachers: the case of 3D printing," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 45(1), pages 259-275, February.
    10. Radu Godina & Inês Ribeiro & Florinda Matos & Bruna T. Ferreira & Helena Carvalho & Paulo Peças, 2020. "Impact Assessment of Additive Manufacturing on Sustainable Business Models in Industry 4.0 Context," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(17), pages 1-21, August.
    11. Jovan Tan & Fabien Jianwei Tan & Seeram Ramakrishna, 2022. "Transitioning to a Circular Economy: A Systematic Review of Its Drivers and Barriers," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(3), pages 1-13, February.
    12. Kolade, Oluwaseun & Adegbile, Abiodun & Sarpong, David, 2022. "Can university-industry-government collaborations drive a 3D printing revolution in Africa? A triple helix model of technological leapfrogging in additive manufacturing," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    13. NoorUl Ain & Kiran Kaur & Mehwish Waheed, 2016. "The influence of learning value on learning management system use," Post-Print hal-03882190, HAL.
    14. Maresch, Daniela & Gartner, Johannes, 2020. "Make disruptive technological change happen - The case of additive manufacturing," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    15. Alok Raj & Anand Jeyaraj, 2023. "Antecedents and consequents of industry 4.0 adoption using technology, organization and environment (TOE) framework: A meta-analysis," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 322(1), pages 101-124, March.
    16. Stavros Ponis & Eleni Aretoulaki & Theodoros Nikolaos Maroutas & George Plakas & Konstantina Dimogiorgi, 2021. "A Systematic Literature Review on Additive Manufacturing in the Context of Circular Economy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-28, May.
    17. Lacroix, Rachel & Seifert, Ralf W. & Timonina-Farkas, Anna, 2021. "Benefiting from additive manufacturing for mass customization across the product life cycle," Operations Research Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 8(C).
    18. Elisa Chioatto & Paolo Sospiro, 2023. "Transition from waste management to circular economy: the European Union roadmap," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 25(1), pages 249-276, January.
    19. Hettiarachchi, Biman Darshana & Brandenburg, Marcus & Seuring, Stefan, 2022. "Connecting additive manufacturing to circular economy implementation strategies: Links, contingencies and causal loops," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 246(C).
    20. Despeisse, M. & Baumers, M. & Brown, P. & Charnley, F. & Ford, S.J. & Garmulewicz, A. & Knowles, S. & Minshall, T.H.W. & Mortara, L. & Reed-Tsochas, F.P. & Rowley, J., 2017. "Unlocking value for a circular economy through 3D printing: A research agenda," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 75-84.
    21. Rodríguez-Espíndola, Oscar & Cuevas-Romo, Ana & Chowdhury, Soumyadeb & Díaz-Acevedo, Natalie & Albores, Pavel & Despoudi, Stella & Malesios, Chrisovalantis & Dey, Prasanta, 2022. "The role of circular economy principles and sustainable-oriented innovation to enhance social, economic and environmental performance: Evidence from Mexican SMEs," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 248(C).
    22. Berman, Barry, 2012. "3-D printing: The new industrial revolution," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 55(2), pages 155-162.
    23. Isaac Kofi Mensah, 2019. "Factors Influencing the Intention of University Students to Adopt and Use E-Government Services: An Empirical Evidence in China," SAGE Open, , vol. 9(2), pages 21582440198, June.
    24. Hmieleski, Keith M. & Corbett, Andrew C., 2008. "The contrasting interaction effects of improvisational behavior with entrepreneurial self-efficacy on new venture performance and entrepreneur work satisfaction," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 23(4), pages 482-496, July.
    25. Schniederjans, Dara G., 2017. "Adoption of 3D-printing technologies in manufacturing: A survey analysis," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 183(PA), pages 287-298.
    26. Efrat Eizenberg & Yosef Jabareen, 2017. "Social Sustainability: A New Conceptual Framework," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(1), pages 1-16, January.
    27. Martins, Carolina & Oliveira, Tiago & Popovič, Aleš, 2014. "Understanding the Internet banking adoption: A unified theory of acceptance and use of technology and perceived risk application," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 1-13.
    28. Durst, Susanne & Davila, Andrés & Foli, Samuel & Kraus, Sascha & Cheng, Cheng-Feng, 2023. "Antecedents of technological readiness in times of crises: A comparison between before and during COVID-19," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    29. - Kurniawan & Agung Maulana & Yusuf Iskandar, 2023. "The Effect of Technology Adaptation and Government Financial Support on Sustainable Performance of MSMEs during the COVID-19 Pandemic," Cogent Business & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(1), pages 2177400-217, December.
    30. Rafael Martínez-Peláez & Alberto Ochoa-Brust & Solange Rivera & Vanessa G. Félix & Rodolfo Ostos & Héctor Brito & Ramón A. Félix & Luis J. Mena, 2023. "Role of Digital Transformation for Achieving Sustainability: Mediated Role of Stakeholders, Key Capabilities, and Technology," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(14), pages 1-27, July.
    31. D. Bianco & A. Bueno & Moacir Godinho Filho & H. Latan & G. Miller Devós Ganga & A.G. Frank & C.J. Chiappetta Jabbour, 2023. "The Role of Industry 4.0 in Developing Resilience for Manufacturing Companies during COVID-19," Post-Print hal-04277168, HAL.
    32. T.M. Tavares & G.M.D. Ganga & M. Godinho Filho & V.P. Rodrigues, 2023. "The Benefits and Barriers of Additive Manufacturing for Circular Economy: A Framework Proposal," Post-Print hal-04458223, HAL.
    33. Damien Giurco & Anna Littleboy & Thomas Boyle & Julian Fyfe & Stuart White, 2014. "Circular Economy: Questions for Responsible Minerals, Additive Manufacturing and Recycling of Metals," Resources, MDPI, vol. 3(2), pages 1-22, May.
    34. Chauhan, Chetna & Parida, Vinit & Dhir, Amandeep, 2022. "Linking circular economy and digitalisation technologies: A systematic literature review of past achievements and future promises," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 177(C).
    35. Mellor, Stephen & Hao, Liang & Zhang, David, 2014. "Additive manufacturing: A framework for implementation," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 149(C), pages 194-201.
    36. Neslihan Top & Ismail Sahin & Sachin Kumar Mangla & Muruvvet Deniz Sezer & Yigit Kazancoglu, 2023. "Towards sustainable production for transition to additive manufacturing: a case study in the manufacturing industry," International Journal of Production Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 61(13), pages 4450-4471, July.
    37. Baumers, Martin & Dickens, Phill & Tuck, Chris & Hague, Richard, 2016. "The cost of additive manufacturing: machine productivity, economies of scale and technology-push," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 193-201.
    38. Bigerna, Simona & Micheli, Silvia & Polinori, Paolo, 2021. "New generation acceptability towards durability and repairability of products: Circular economy in the era of the 4th industrial revolution," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 165(C).
    39. Weller, Christian & Kleer, Robin & Piller, Frank T., 2015. "Economic implications of 3D printing: Market structure models in light of additive manufacturing revisited," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 43-56.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Holzmann, Patrick & Breitenecker, Robert J. & Schwarz, Erich J. & Gregori, Patrick, 2020. "Business model design for novel technologies in nascent industries: An investigation of 3D printing service providers," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    2. Harshad Sonar & Vivek Khanzode & Milind Akarte, 2022. "Additive Manufacturing Enabled Supply Chain Management: A Review and Research Directions," Vision, , vol. 26(2), pages 147-162, June.
    3. Naghshineh, Bardia & Carvalho, Helena, 2022. "The implications of additive manufacturing technology adoption for supply chain resilience: A systematic search and review," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 247(C).
    4. Marić, Josip & Opazo-Basáez, Marco & Vlačić, Božidar & Dabić, Marina, 2023. "Innovation management of three-dimensional printing (3DP) technology: Disclosing insights from existing literature and determining future research streams," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 193(C).
    5. Marco Savastano & Carlo Amendola & Francesco Bellini & Fabrizio D’Ascenzo, 2019. "Contextual Impacts on Industrial Processes Brought by the Digital Transformation of Manufacturing: A Systematic Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-38, February.
    6. Patrick Holzmann & Erich J. Schwarz & David B. Audretsch, 2020. "Understanding the determinants of novel technology adoption among teachers: the case of 3D printing," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 45(1), pages 259-275, February.
    7. Beltagui, Ahmad & Kunz, Nathan & Gold, Stefan, 2020. "The role of 3D printing and open design on adoption of socially sustainable supply chain innovation," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 221(C).
    8. Kleer, Robin & Piller, Frank T., 2019. "Local manufacturing and structural shifts in competition: Market dynamics of additive manufacturing," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 216(C), pages 23-34.
    9. Culot, Giovanna & Orzes, Guido & Sartor, Marco & Nassimbeni, Guido, 2020. "The future of manufacturing: A Delphi-based scenario analysis on Industry 4.0," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    10. Yeh, Ching-Chiang & Chen, Yi-Fan, 2018. "Critical success factors for adoption of 3D printing," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 209-216.
    11. Haug, Anders & Wickstrøm, Kent Adsbøll & Stentoft, Jan & Philipsen, Kristian, 2023. "Adoption of additive manufacturing: A survey of the role of knowledge networks and maturity in small and medium-sized Danish production firms," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 255(C).
    12. Gianmarco Bressanelli & Federico Adrodegari & Daniela C. A. Pigosso & Vinit Parida, 2022. "Towards the Smart Circular Economy Paradigm: A Definition, Conceptualization, and Research Agenda," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-20, April.
    13. Ukobitz, Desirée Valeria & Faullant, Rita, 2022. "The relative impact of isomorphic pressures on the adoption of radical technology: Evidence from 3D printing," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 113(C).
    14. Naghshineh, Bardia & Ribeiro, André & Jacinto, Celeste & Carvalho, Helena, 2021. "Social impacts of additive manufacturing: A stakeholder-driven framework," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).
    15. Inês Ribeiro & Florinda Matos & Celeste Jacinto & Hafiz Salman & Gonçalo Cardeal & Helena Carvalho & Radu Godina & Paulo Peças, 2020. "Framework for Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment of Additive Manufacturing," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-22, January.
    16. Foshammer, Jeppe & Søberg, Peder Veng & Helo, Petri & Ituarte, Iñigo Flores, 2022. "Identification of aftermarket and legacy parts suitable for additive manufacturing: A knowledge management-based approach," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 253(C).
    17. Candi, Marina & Beltagui, Ahmad, 2019. "Effective use of 3D printing in the innovation process," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 80, pages 63-73.
    18. Robert B. Handfield & James Aitken & Neil Turner & Tillmann Boehme & Cecil Bozarth, 2022. "Assessing Adoption Factors for Additive Manufacturing: Insights from Case Studies," Logistics, MDPI, vol. 6(2), pages 1-22, June.
    19. Hettiarachchi, Biman Darshana & Brandenburg, Marcus & Seuring, Stefan, 2022. "Connecting additive manufacturing to circular economy implementation strategies: Links, contingencies and causal loops," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 246(C).
    20. Monica Shukla & Ravi Shankar, 2022. "Modeling of critical success factors for adoption of smart manufacturing system in Indian SMEs: an integrated approach," OPSEARCH, Springer;Operational Research Society of India, vol. 59(4), pages 1271-1303, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:tefoso:v:213:y:2025:i:c:s0040162525000721. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00401625 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.