The Effects of Customization via Starting Solutions on Customer Values:

Abstract

Mass customization (MC) is a product strategy that can meet heterogeneous customer needs. Among various kinds of MC systems, customization via starting solutions (CvSS) has attracted academic attention as a method of reducing configuration costs, and its effectiveness has been examined. However, existing studies examining the effectiveness of CvSS have limitations in two respects; 1) focusing only on limited MC values, and 2) ignoring the heterogeneity of customer design skills. The purposes of this paper are 1) to specify the structure of MC values perceived by customers, and 2) to examine the effects of CvSS based on the structure of MC values. The results of Study 1 show that the MC process value, consisting of enjoyment and process effort, enhances the MC product value, which consists of preference fit and self-expressiveness. The results of Study 2 show that customers with high design skills perceive less enjoyment in the CvSS process than those with lower design skills.