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School of Business | Department of Marketing and Management | Marketing | 2011
Thesis number: 12504
Electronic collaborative mass customization as a competitive strategy – Exploring the key success factors
Author: Palmu, Krista
Title: Electronic collaborative mass customization as a competitive strategy – Exploring the key success factors
Year: 2011  Language: eng
Department: Department of Marketing and Management
Academic subject: Marketing
Index terms: markkinointi; marketing; tuotekehitys; product development; suunnittelu; planning; design management; design management; kilpailu; competition; strategia; strategy; kilpailuetu; competitive advantage
Pages: 100
Full text:
» hse_ethesis_12504.pdf pdf  size:2 MB (1130196)
Key terms: mass customization; massakustomointi; design; virtual; virtuaalinen; value; arvo; collaboration; yhteistyö; competitive advantage; kilpailuetu; strategy; strategia
Abstract:
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.
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