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英国索尔福德大学留学生论文定制How “ready” are customers for mass customisation? An exploratory investigation
Ahmet Bardakci
Pamukkale University, Denizli, Turkey
Jeryl Whitelock
School of Management, Salford University, Salford, UK
Keywords Customization, Standardization, Customers, United Kingdom, Cars
Abstract This paper examines the concept of mass customisation from the point of view of thecustomer. Although the theory of mass customisation has received considerable attention in recentyears, the emphasis has been on identifying and classifying the ways in which mass customisation
can be implemented efficiently and effectively. There appears to have been no empirical evidence tosupport the notion that customers are indeed ready for this approach. The aim of this study is toexamine how far customers are “ready” for mass-customised products, using the UK new carmarket as its basis for analysis. A framework is developed and results presented which suggest thata sizeable section of the market is ready to accept the “inconveniences” of mass-customisedproducts. However, the main inconvenience of mass customisation is identified as increased price,even for “ready” customers. It would seem, therefore, that both global standardisation and masscustomisation strategies are appropriate in this market.
Introduction
Since Levitt (1998) argued that advances in technology in relation to transport andcommunication were the drivers of the globalisation ofmarkets, there has been muchdebate on the feasibility of globally standardised products. Producing for a globalmarket is said to lower prices, with Levitt (1998) concluding that people would sacrificetheir pReferences to have “modernity’s allurements” for the sake of consistent quality atlow prices.
Pine’s (1993) theory of “mass-customisation” appears to contradict the globalisationapproach. According to Pine (1993), people are no longer willing to sacrifice theirpreferences but are looking for exactly what they want and need and are willing to payextra for such products. Moreover, with advances in computer-aided manufacturing,economies of scale can be achieved with a small batch size, and even individual
products can be provided cost effectively. Pine (1993) argued that through technology,anything that can be digitised can be customised. Based on this premise, a number oftheoretical works have emerged in the literature which identify and classify the waysin which mass customisation can be implemented efficiently and effectively (see, for
example, Pine, 1993; Lampel and Mintzberg, 1996; Gilmore and Pine, 1997; Andersenand Pine, 1997; Feitzenger and Lee, 1997). However, there appears to be no systematicempirical evidence to support the notion that customers are indeed ready for thisapproach. The aim of this exploratory study is to begin to examine how far customersare “ready” for mass-customised products. In other words, it examines the demand sideThe Emerald Research Register for this journal is available at The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/researchregister www.emeraldinsight.com/0309-0566.htm
EJM
38,11/12
1396
Received June 2002
Revised May 2003
September 2003
European Journal of Marketing
Vol. 38 No. 11/12, 2004
pp. 1396-1416
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
0309-0566
DOI 10.1108/03090560410560164
of the market, rather than the supply side as has been the case in previous research. Bydoin本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。