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r, with advances incomputer aided manufacturing, economies of scale can be achieved with a small batch
size, and even individual products can be provided cost effectively. Based on thispremise, a number of theoretical works have emerged in the literature which identifyand classify the ways in which mass-customisation can be implemented efficiently andeffectively (Pine, 1993; Lampel and Mintzberg, 1996; Gilmore and Pine, 1997; Andersen,1997; Feitzenger and Lee, 1997). However, these works assume that customers areready for mass-customisation, without presenting evidence from systematic researchthat this is indeed the case.Customers’ readiness for mass-customisation
It is not the aim here to present a detailed review of the literature onmass-customisation. This has been undertaken elsewhere (Bardakci and Whitelock,2003). Rather the aim is to focus on a comparison of customers’ readiness formass-customisation, as identified through exploratory research undertaken in Turkeyand the UK. Pioneering applications of mass-customisation have suggested threemajor inconveniences that customers are likely to face: mass-customised products aremore expensive than standardised products (Kotha, 1995), a customised productcannot be delivered to the customer at the time of purchase, and, since the customerinitiates the design process, the customer is required to invest time in “designing”the product (Pine et al., 1995). Thus, customers’ readiness may be determined asfollows:
(1) Are customers willing to pay a premium for a customised product?
(2) Are customers willing to wait to receive their customised product?
(3) Are customers willing to invest time in “designing” the product?
Readiness may be defined through a positive response to all three questions. This is tosay that, provided customers are willing to accept all three inconveniences ofmass-customisation, they will be considered to be “ready” for customisation (Bardakciand Whitelock, 2003).
A related concept is the issue of customer customisation sensitivity (Hart, 1995).Two basic tenets determine customer customisation sensitivity, the uniqueness of thecustomer’s needs and the customer sacrifice gap. Uniqueness of the customer’s needs isa function of the relevant demand pattern. If the demand pattern is primarily functional(such as the demand for table salt), customers do not care whether they are offeredcustomised solutions or not. On the other hand, if the demand pattern is innovativecustomers are more likely to pay attention to customisation. The customer sacrificegap is the gap between the desired product and available products in the market. Alkinds of sacrifices fall into this category: hassle, inconveniences, discomforts, longqueues, product deficiencies, high cost, ordering difficulties and so on. The bigger thegap the more the customers are sensitive and the more customisation becomes adesirable strategy (Peppers and Rogers, 1993; Hart, 1995; Gilmore and Pine, 1997;Peppers and Rogers, 1997). This customer customisation sensitivity suggestsadditional research propositions.
EBR
17,5
398
Research propositions
RP1. Customers’ in today’s market are no longer willing to relinquish theirpreferences in return for low price but are looking for exactly what they want.
As a result customers will be willing to pay a premium for a customisedproduct.
RP1 rejects the idea found in the globalisation of markets literature that customers’ arewilling to relinquish the