Abstract:      In the context of mass innovation and entrepreneurship, the establishment and development of maker space have become a focal point for the government. To study the impact of policy tools comprehensively and profoundly on the maker space, this paper collected and analyzed 182 policy texts related to the maker space from 16 cities in China over five years. From the perspective of policy tools, this paper established a three-dimensional model to analyze maker space policies. This model incorporated the strength of policy intervention, maker space ecosystem, and policy classification method. The strength of policy intervention refers to the extent of government involvement in providing goods or services. Accordingly, policy tools are categorized as laissez-faire, partially participatory, tactically guided, or government-dominated. Howlett and Ramesh introduced their classification method in 1985, which has since been widely accepted by scholars. They argue that policy tools can be divided into three categories: environmental side, supply-side, and demand-side. The maker space ecosystem comprises essential elements at various levels, including the external environment, corporate, entrepreneur, and atmosphere. The study employed NVivo software to perform open coding of specific policy measures, treating them as nodes within 182 policy texts originating from four distinct regions. Logical reasoning was then conducted by combining the main purpose of nodes and the national guidance, resulting in the generation of spindle nodes. The study underscored the government′s commitment to supporting the development of maker space. To gain a more comprehensive understanding of the supportive effects of policy tools on maker space, this study delved deeper by nesting open-coded nodes and their corresponding spindle codes into a theoretical analysis framework. To construct a framework diagram of the nodes, MATLAB collected and accumulated attributes of nodes from all policy texts. The research findings revealed three significant observations. Firstly, regarding the market′s role, the deployment of policy tools has been inconsistent and severely imbalanced. Governments have extensively employed policy tools that primarily focus on the environmental and supply aspects of the market. Although there has been an increase in policy incentives on the demand side since 2018, the measures targeting the demand side remain significantly inadequate. As a result, the equilibrium between supply and demand cannot be achieved dynamically, leading to the issue of underutilized innovation resources. Secondly, there is a discernible inclination towards employing diverse policy tools across ecosystem components. Policies characterized by laissez-faire and partial participation policies are primarily limited to the external environment and corporate level, while other components receive substantial interventionist measures. Additionally, the deployment of policy tools and distribution of nodes exhibit remarkable consistency throughout the country. Undoubtedly, the establishment of maker space platforms has consistently remained as a focal point for most governments, with minor discrepancies in policy tools reflecting localized understanding and methodologies.This paper also presented several suggestions: the government ought to thoroughly evaluate the influence of the market′s role, actively monitor the market′s feedback, proactively adjust the magnitude of various policies, establish stability in the balance between supply and demand, enhance the market environment, and facilitate the self-regulation of the market mechanism. Given the interconnectedness of maker space with various sectors, it is imperative that the policies encompass all facets of the maker space′s ecological environment and explore diverse avenues for policy implementation. In its support for emerging industries, the government should also prioritize the adoption of innovative policy measures and facilitate the integration of multi-industry collaboration to drive comprehensive development. Local governments should possess an understanding of their unique characteristics, carefully evaluate the local context, emphasize their comparative advantages in policy interventions, and actively explore their inherent potential. This approach will help mitigate homogeneous development and enhance the viability of crowdsourcing spaces, thereby improving their overall sustainability.

Key words: maker space, policy tool, policy text, ecosystem