Intermediation and disintermediation of resources for entrepreneurship and innovation in the maker movement.

The maker movement phenomenon represents potential disintermediation of producer innovation as well as intermediation of creative processes for entrepreneurs and innovators. This dissertation introduces the maker movement phenomenon and its relevance for research on entrepreneurship and innovation. I discuss how, through shared access to tools and digital fabrication technologies, makers can act as producers in the sharing economy and potentially increase entrepreneurship rates, catalyze advanced manufacturing, and spur economic development. I develop a model of the maker movement configured around social exchange, technology resources, and knowledge creation and sharing. Through a multiple case study design, I build a theoretical understanding of the conditions and mechanisms underlying physical maker spaces as collective resource systems that can lead to value capture and creation. I distinguish between selection and treatment effects by delineating the role of maker spaces for productivity intermediation and creativity intermediation through the interactions of their physical, social and knowledge resources.