eThesis - School of Business electronic theses

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OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY Electronic collaborative mass customization (ECMC) – online customer-centered product design – is an emerging discipline. The objective of the research is to examine ECMC as a competitive strategy through the identification of key success factors that have received inadequate attention previously. More specifically, the aim is to introduce a new framework for value co-creation.

METHODOLOGY The data was collected through netnography and themed interviews. With regard to primary data, six (6) Finnish B2C companies’ marketing managers were interviewed in order to obtain a strategic perspective to the phenomenon in question. Moreover, in order to produce triangulation and emphasize customer-centrism, netnography was employed as a secondary method. The collected data was analyzed via theory-bound approach.

FINDINGS Based on data analysis, several conclusions and implications were contrived. From the results, it becomes evident that practitioners need to carefully analyze and implement four central elements – systemic (interface, logistics), organizational (culture, resources), customer (experience, commitment), and competitive understanding (offering, promotion) – in order to provide superior customer value and obtain competitive advantage through ECMC. With regard to academics, it is suggested that future research continues the investigation of this new form of competition from different foundations and perspectives.