Third Wave Do-It-Yourself (DIY): Potential for prosumption, innovation, and entrepreneurship by local populations in regions without industrial manufacturing infrastructure

摘要

There have been three such waves of do-it-yourself (DIY). In the first subsistence DIY, people grew what they eat and made what they need without regularly making purchases in a marketplace. In second industrial DIY, people bought made-to-forecast (MTF) kits of goods such as kits of pre-designed boats and furniture. In the new third wave DIY enables ordinary people to invent, design, make, and/or sell goods that they think of themselves. The Third Wave DIY is revolutionary for prosumption, for innovation, and for entrepreneurship. The research article reports the findings of two claims for Third Wave DIY i.e., it is revolutionary, and it could be carried out by anybody anywhere. In particular, it has tried to evaluate on local populations that lack functional literacy in any of the lingua franca (such as English), computer skills, and access to industrial manufacturing infrastructure. The assessment included an examination of technical feasibility, operational practicality, and economic viability. A comparative analysis with subsistence DIY (first wave) and industrial DIY (second wave) using resource-based theory, knowledge-based view and transaction cost economics in North America and Western Europe has also been done. The paper discusses the state-of-the-art in third wave DIY, and its potential for prosumption, innovation, and entrepreneurship. The concluding section of the paper discusses the merits of claims for Third Wave DIY and the findings of the study.