Makerspaces and Entrepreneurship

Makerspaces: Characteristics and Effects

Makerspaces are communities that provide physical and/or virtual space with tools and machinery which promote innovative, entrepreneurial activities as well as creative experiments of any form in the areas of science, art and technology while exchanging ideas and tinkering in a social setting (Halbinger 2018). The number of makerspaces, hacklabs and digital fabrication labs is growing rapidly, with 2,321 makerspaces in 2020 worldwide (www.hackerspaces.org). Innovation and entrepreneurship scholars are becoming increasingly interested in the governance and effects of makerspaces (de Jong et al. 2015; Halbinger 2018; Svensson and Hartmann 2017; von Hippel 2017) and the broader implications of the maker movement (Browder, Aldrich, and Bradley 2019), considered as the most important development since the industrial revolution (Anderson 2012). Makerspaces have been further used to integrate users in systematic ways into organizations’ innovation processes as with LEGO (Antorini, Muñiz Jr, and Askildsen 2012) and BMW (www.maker-space.de). In addition, they promote learning and experimentation at university campuses such as Stanford or MIT (https://libguides.stanford.edu/makerspace; https://project-manus.mit.edu/), thus appealing to practitioners and educators.

Halbinger, Maria A.. "The Relevance of Makerspaces for University-based Venture Development Organizations" Entrepreneurship Research Journal, vol. 10, no. 2, 2020, pp. 20200049. https://doi.org/10.1515/erj-2020-0049