ABSTRACT The regional success in relation to the development of emerging technology is not automatically determined by pre-existing conditions and activities. Relatively visible actors, such as universities or individuals, need to engage in developing emerging technology and help facilitate knowledge spillovers through vibrant interactions in a region. However, it is often unclear which local actors are most important in the process of developing spatial agglomeration of innovative activities related to emerging technology. Using the case of 3D printing, this paper empirically investigates the role of innovative local actors, such as universities, individual inventors and producers, and answers the question of who the primary local actors in the agglomeration process are. This paper finds that the emerging technology-related knowledge of local universities has a robust, significant and positive effect on firms’ innovative activities, thereby spreading the use of emerging technology in a region and building regional competitive advantage based on such technology.