Let's get personal: why some customers customise and others don't.
Creators: name: Pallant, Jess
Publisher: name: RMIT University
Year: 2024
Subjects: classificationCode: 350602
subject: Consumer-oriented product or service development
classificationCode: 350608
subject: Marketing theory

description: Customers are increasingly demanding products that directly fit their individual needs. One way customers can achieve this is through the configuration of a product or service from a pre-determined list of components. This is just one example of mass customisation. While existing research on the managerial implications of mass customisation is rich, research on customer perspectives is underdeveloped. As a result, literature provides insufficient and inconclusive theorising regarding alternative customisation strategies from a customer's perspective. The first paper in this thesis conceptualizes a coherent mass customisation matrix, delineating four respective strategies, and specifies `co-configuration' as an important yet understudied strategy. An extended future research agenda is then provided.<br><br>The second paper then investigates the application of a configuration theory perspective to provide insights into alternative market segments that provide opportunities for firms seeking strategic fit for effective customisation. In doing so, the second paper sheds light on how market configurations influence new product design success. A multi-study approach is taken, collecting data within and across product category contexts. Latent Cluster Analysis is utilised to segment customers based on prior experience with customisation, while investigating the effects of covariates on segment membership. Four segments are identified that function as stable and internally consistent market configurations; casual customisers, non-customisers, playful customisers and product enthusiasts. This research helps to understand how customer segments can be identified through a configuration theory lens to better predict market behaviour and understand what drives success of the new product design. The findings show these segments are functional and stable over different products and brands, enhancing the generalisability of these segments.<br><br>Finally, the last paper in this thesis seeks to understand what drives customers' intention to use a customisation toolkit and their purchase intention of customised products. The concept of experience has received increasing attention in recent literature. In particular, studies focused on brand experience have gained in prominence, aided by the development of associated scales to measure the concept. This has led to the identification that a connection between brand experience and customisation is unknown. Paper 3 considers the interplay between individual, product and brand related drivers to answer a call for further research connecting branding and customisation. In doing so, this paper develops an understanding of what drives consumers' intention to use a customisation toolkit and their subsequent intention to purchase customised products. Data are collected using an online panel, and structural equation modelling through AMOS is used to analyse a mediation model. The paper finds brand experience is the strongest driver of intention to use a customisation toolkit, mediating the relationship between individual and product related factors, and intention to use. Past experience and intention to use a customisation toolkit are the only direct drivers of purchase intention of customised products. <br><br>The three studies in culmination address the overarching thesis aim, providing an in-depth understanding of mass customisation and addressing existing calls for research to advance knowledge both academically and practically.