Mass customisation systems: complementarities and performance consequences

Abstract

Mass customisation (MC) is considered to be an important competitive tool to increase the performance of manufacturers. Due to the importance of MC as part of the manufacturing process, there is an increasing amount of research devoted to exploring the nature of MC and how to effectively implement MC processes. Based on the theory of complementary assets, this study investigates the relationships between different MC practices and the effects of these practices on the firm's financial performance. In this study, simultaneous equation modelling and hierarchical regression analysis are applied to data collected from a large-scale survey in China. The results show that different MC practices positively affect each other, and that the interactions between the MC practices positively influence a firm's financial performance. This indicates that the complementary adoption of MC practices is important for a firm's success, requiring the simultaneous deployment of elicitation, process-flexible technology and logistics practices.

Keywords:

• mass customisation
• complementary assets
• financial performance
• China

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number 71090403/71090400] and [grant number 71002005]; the Centre for Supply Chain Management and Logistics of the Li and Fung Institute of Supply Chain Management and Logistics at the Chinese University of Hong Kong; the Institute of Supply Chain Integration and Service Innovation at the South China University of Technology.