Impact of product modularity on mass customization capability: An exploratory study of contextual factors

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Tang, Mincong, Qi, Yinan and Zhang, Min (2017) Impact of product modularity on mass customization capability: An exploratory study of contextual factors. International Journal of Information Technology & Decision Making, 16 (4). ISSN 0219-6220

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Abstract

This study examines how the impact of product modularity on the mass customization capability is moderated by several contextual factors, such as the firms’ information system capacity (ISC), teamwork (TW), multifunctional employees (MFE), and organizational structure (flat or hierarchical) (OSF). Data from 238 firms located in multiple countries across three different industry groups were analyzed to test the moderated regression models and the hypotheses. The results showed that the product modularity strongly impacts the mass customization capability (MCC). Compared to ISC, the social contextual variables, such as TW, MFE, and OSF, have stronger moderating effects on the impact of the product modularity on the mass customization capability. In addition, ISC helps MCC solely for firms with flat organizational structures. Overall, our study suggests that manufacturers who desire to become mass customizers should create flat, nimble organizations with employees who are trained in several different tasks and are adept at teamwork.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	mass customization,product modularity,teamwork,organizational structure,information processing
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Norwich Business School
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Innovation, Technology and Operations Management
Related URLs:	http://www.worldscientific.com/doi/abs/1...
Depositing User:	Pure Connector
Date Deposited:	09 Jun 2017 05:05
Last Modified:	03 Jul 2023 09:30
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/63718
DOI:	10.1142/S0219622017410012

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