Environmental sustainability in South Africa's 3D printing sector The roles of cost, technology adoption, and regulatory compliance

This study was conducted to examine the effect of 3D printing cost, 3D printing technology adoption and regulatory compliance on environmental sustainability among 3D printing firms in South Africa. The study also investigated the mediating effect of regulatory compliance on the relationships between 3D printing cost and 3D printing technology adoption on environmental sustainability. The study adopted a deductive research approach, quantitative research method and an explanatory correlational research design. Simple random sampling technique was used to select a total of 152 employees of 3D printing firms in South Africa. Questionnaires served as the data collection instruments, and online data gathering was done using Google Forms. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 26 software was used for data coding, data entry, and descriptive statistics. Smart PLS 4 was used to conduct partial Least Squares (PLS) Structural Equation Modelling. Results of the study indicate that a significant negative relationship exists between 3D printing cost and environmental sustainability while a significant positive relationship was found to exist between 3D printing technology adoption and environmental sustainability among 3D printing firms in South Africa. A significant positive relationship also exists between 3D printing regulatory compliance and environmental sustainability. For mediation effects, it was found that 3D printing regulatory compliance negatively mediates the relationship between cost and environmental sustainability. The results also indicated that regulatory compliance does not mediate the relationship between 3D printing technology and environmental sustainability. The study concludes that, in as much as 3D printing costs and technology adoption are essential, regulatory compliance has significant role to play in ensuring the maximization of environmental sustainability in South Africa’s 3D printing industry.