Abstract: Based on the semi-structured data with sixty-seven managers of sixty-four maker space platforms, eight officials of four government agencies, and 203 questionnaires from 78 maker space platforms, this paper conducts a qualitative plus quantitative study to explore the structure, connotation and measuring tools of maker spaces platform organization in China. Then we use 68 pairs of data from maker space platforms and entrepreneurs to empirically test the mechanism of how the organizational competitiveness of maker space platforms influences entrepreneurial engagement. The result indicates that the organizational competitiveness of maker space platform is a second-order five-factor structure that includes identity construction, cultural closeness, value proposition, service embeddedness and resource commitment and the scale presents favorable reliability and validity. The competitiveness of maker space platform organization has a positive effect on the entrepreneurial involvement. The results help managers to deeply and comprehenively understand the root cause why maker space platforms are facing the phenominon of “too more temples for monks”, and provide technical and theoretical support for the construction of the theory of competitiveness of maker space platforms.

Key words: maker space, platform organization, competitiveness structure, scale development, entrepreneur engagement