Abstract
The digital age brings changes of technologies but also of industry boundaries facilitating the emergence of digital categories and ecosystems. Our exploratory study investigates ecosystems in the 3D printing industry. We analyse the intersection of the firm-, category-, and ecosystem-layer considering normative and cognitive legitimacy. Our theorizing is informed by 65 interviews with firms triangulated with expert interviews and with coding of narratives. Findings indicate that the high dynamics in the industry are compensated by strongly coherent norms and values related to normative legitimacy. Cognitive legitimacy forms along physical technology and operations, anchoring strongly on input materials. Firms might strategically address legitimation by three strategies, the passive-adaptive, the developmental-nurture, and the disruptive inflammational approach. Technology potential knowledge and operational process knowledge, as two forms of knowledge exchange, drive the emergence of ecosystems.
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