Outsourcing attracted much attention in 1989 when Kodak outsourced its data center operation to IBM (International Business Machines Corp.). Nowadays, this strategy has become more popular. At the beginning of this century, the ASP (Application Service Provider) model was considered one of the typical solutions of Internet-based IT (Information Technology) outsourcing. Although this model has been transformed and renamed (e.g. SaaS - Software as a Service), the principle concept of providing IT service through the Internet or wide area network is still there. This study attempts to explore the determinants of customer perception of Internet-based IT outsourcing by obtaining a comprehensive understanding of the ASP model. The research dimensions not only include factors affecting users' perception of service quality but also ASP business position (i.e. the firm origin of ASP and its provider type) and services utilized by the customers. Through the study of firm history, two important theoretical themes of this research - path-dependence and Ansoff's product/ market growth matrix - are taken account of in exploring the influence of the determinants. Web-based questionnaire survey research is conducted together with a documentation study to collect data. Targeting the customers of the top 50 ASPs selected by ASPnews.com during the period 2001-2004, the researcher contacted 597 potential respondents, and 196 responses were returned. The valid sample consisted of 175 responses, and 124 of them not only provided full information for satisfaction evaluation but also the information for tracking their ASP vendors' business position. The GLM (General Linear Model) and the Pearson correlation coefficient were the major statistical approaches used to evaluate the survey data for developing a structural model. The research findings indicated that the factors associated with service competitiveness, such as capability and performance, reliability and trustworthiness, affordability, integration and customization, have positive effects on customer perceived satisfaction; whereas lock-in has a negative effect. More specifically, the origin of the ASP firm has a direct effect on capacity and performance, and also directly influences the use of IT adoption services. Based on this finding, a descriptive analysis and qualitative research shows that two mechanisms for path-dependence - existing expertise and perceived expertise - can affect the satisfaction level of capacity and performance of ASP services. On the other hand, provider type has a direct effect on affordability and also directly influences the use of facility supporting services. On this basis, another two mechanisms for path-dependence - transaction cost and standardization - can indirectly impact customer's perception of this business model via affordability. In addition to those major findings, some other determinants (e.g. software applications, brand of applications, and intensity of service used) were also identified in this study. The study result can be used for theoretical understanding about the determinants of ASP customer's perception. It not only indicates a new perspective to enhance the current body of research on this topic, but can also be more broadly applied to any fast-growth firm, rapid-change business, or technology intensive industry. Acknowledgements I would like to sincerely thank the following people for their contribution to this research project. Dr. Scott Koslow, my chief supervisor, for his continued encouragement, patience and guidance to ensure the completion of this project. His speciality in statistics has provided appropriate and valuable guidance in the data analysis for my research. Dr. Steven Lim, my second supervisor, for his advice, coherence, and support over the years. I also appreciate his constructive comments on my drafts and the shaping of my research. Dr. Bob McQueen and Dr. Jim Corner, for their assistance and advice in the early stages of my study. My parents, Yu-Ho and Lee-Chiung Liang, and my brother Ken, my sisters Annie, Eva, and Nancy, my brothers-in-law, J.C. and Chen, and Alice, my sister-in-law, for their emotional support throughout the length of my study. I also thank Bessie, my best friend for her assistance in data collection and her loving support, as well as Ted, Kevin, Mark, Frank, and Shirley, my study mates for their encouragement and friendship. Special thanks goes to Dr. Kuang-Ya Wang, the principal of Yu Da High School of Commerce and Home Economics, Taiwan, and also to the staff over there for their concern and assistance in data collection. Most importantly, my heartfelt appreciation goes to Warren, my husband. I am deeply grateful to him for his understanding, patience, and practical help. Without his enduring support I could not have done this study. Finally, my thanks and gratitude goes to those people who patiently answered my survey questionnaire as their kind assistance made it possible to complete this research.

<p>An increasing amount of technology in cars makes new ideas and solutions necessary. This study will explore the idea of a personalized driver environment and investigate possible benefits and drawbacks with such a feature. The study consists of three parts: a pre-study exploring personalization, a survey investigating the attitudes towards personal settings, and finally an interview testing a specific solution. The survey was distributed in USA and Sweden while the interviews were conducted with Swedish subjects.</p><p>Overall, the concept of a personalized car has been well received. This study has shown that the most requested settings are associated with the driver position, hi-fi system and climate. The study also suggests that feeling in control of the personalization is more important than the benefits associated with automation. The user prefers visible solutions, such as a personal button on the key before hidden (e.g. using a button sequence or a menu system). Such a button promotes the feature while allowing the user to interact with the car in a familiar way. However, since little real user experience exists with such solutions it is important to continue research when further developing personalization of a car.</p>

Through interaction with customers, companies can acquire knowledge about- and satisfy the needs of customers. In retailing, the ranges of products are standardized and staffing numbers are scarce. How do companies in retailing deal with adaptation towards their customers given the small staffing numbers? The purpose of this study is to examine if and if so, how companies in the Swedish retailing industry are making adaptations towards their customers and also why these adaptations are being made. To answer this purpose, observations in the retailing industry are conducted and the results show that companies adapt to customers’ needs. However, this is not done through personalization. Finally, this study shows that companies in the retailing industry adapt to their customers mainly through mass-customization. / Genom interaktion med kunder kan företag skaffa sig kunskap om kundernas behov och tillgodose dessa. Inom dagligvaruhandeln är sortimenten standardiserade och personalstyrkan liten, något som torde missgynna interaktionen mellan parterna. Hur arbetar företag i dagligvaruhandeln med anpassningar till sina kunders behov när personaltätheten är förhållandevis låg? Syftet med studien är att undersöka om och i sådana fall hur ett företag inom den svenska dagligvaruhandeln anpassar sig till sina kunders behov, samt varför detta sker. För att besvara syftet görs observationer inom dagligvaruhandeln och resultaten visar att anpassning görs, dock ej personlig anpassning till enskilda kunders behov. Avslutningsvis visar studien att anpassning sker inom dagligvaruhandeln och att detta främst sker genom massanpassning. / Betyg: VG

Mass customization is promoted in manufacturing industry as a way to satisfy individual customer requirements in a flexible, efficient and cost effective way. However, mass customization within the specific sector of &lsquo / electronic consumer goods&rsquo / is relatively underdeveloped, whilst the contributions of industrial designers to mass customization remain quite unclear. This research redresses both of these issues, elaborating on the possibilities of mass-customization in the electronic consumer goods sector, and explaining how industrial designers can take a central role in implementation. Chapter 2 contains a literature review on key terms related to mass customization. A portfolio of mass customization case studies, from both within and outside electronic consumer goods, are presented and analyzed in Chapter 3, which also reports on a new classification system to define six discrete customization types. User needs research methods, including IDEO methods, are reviewed in Chapter 4 to determine those methods most applicable for use in the pilot (Chapter 5) and main (Chapter 7) &lsquo / research through design&rsquo / customization projects. The pilot project, conducted with METU industrial design undergraduates, explored opportunities and barriers for mass customization of electronic consumer goods / the main project, carried out by the Vestel ID Team under the SAN-TEZ scheme, resulted in a new mass customized all-in-one (AIO) PC for Vestel Electronics. In Chapter 6, results of interviews with Vestel staff are presented, uncovering the current situation within Vestel Electronics for implementing mass customization. Chapter 8 contains the research conclusions, including discussion of a proposed design-based mass customization design and development procedure.

Mass customization is promoted in manufacturing industry as a way to satisfy individual customer requirements in a flexible, efficient and cost effective way. However, mass customization within the specific sector of &lsquo / electronic consumer goods&rsquo / is relatively underdeveloped, whilst the contributions of industrial designers to mass customization remain quite unclear. This research redresses both of these issues, elaborating on the possibilities of mass-customization in the electronic consumer goods sector, and explaining how industrial designers can take a central role in implementation. Chapter 2 contains a literature review on key terms related to mass customization. A portfolio of mass customization case studies, from both within and outside electronic consumer goods, are presented and analyzed in Chapter 3, which also reports on a new classification system to define six discrete customization types. User needs research methods, including IDEO methods, are reviewed in Chapter 4 to determine those methods most applicable for use in the pilot (Chapter 5) and main (Chapter 7) &lsquo / research through design&rsquo / customization projects. The pilot project, conducted with METU industrial design undergraduates, explored opportunities and barriers for mass customization of electronic consumer goods / the main project, carried out by the Vestel ID Team under the SAN-TEZ scheme, resulted in a new mass customized all-in-one (AIO) PC for Vestel Electronics. In Chapter 6, results of interviews with Vestel staff are presented, uncovering the current situation within Vestel Electronics for implementing mass customization. Chapter 8 contains the research conclusions, including discussion of a proposed design-based mass customization design and development procedure.

At present time, climate and energy issues are important subjects in the international market and environmental technology is a rapidly growing concept. Many companies in Sweden have developed much in-house knowledge in environmental technology. Therefore, they have great opportunity to export. In the sustainability perspective, export has not only benefits in the economic aspect, but also advantages for the environment. Development of appropriate business models is necessary for supporting environmental technology export.In this research an attempt was made to explore business model elements and offerings for export of environmental technology. The relevant theories in environmental technology characteristics, customization, product service systems and business models were used.The case studies included a Swedish municipality-owned company, its subsidiaries and a Swedish private company which was active in export. Empirical data were collected by conducting of interviews. The results reflect the business models and offerings of the studied cases. The analysis of cases provided findings for environmental technologies characteristics which have effect on export business models.Furthermore, six categories for making distinction among different elements of business models in literature were defined in this study. By analysis of the cases a new category which entailed new elements was added as the seventh category. The mentioned categories are useful in business model formulating for export of environmental technology.

This paper focuses on four interrelated strategies: postponement, mass customization, modularization and customer order decoupling point. The goal of the postponement is to delay the customization as late as possible in the supply chain. It is also known as delayed differentiation. Mass customization is a relatively new term, which began to gain attention in the industry a decade ago. It was an obligatory invention as a response to the global market which becomes more turbulent day by day for the last two decades. Its goal is to produce customized products at low costs. Modularization is a common term that is used in many areas. In this study, we will focus on product architecture modularity and process modularity. Customer order decoupling point, which is also known as order penetration point, is used to distinguish the point in the supply chain where a particular product is associated to a specific order. Our target is building a model that explains how these four concepts are related. In order to achieve this, we will, first, research every concept individually; we will state the definitions, levels, benefits, enablers, success factors, drivers, etc. of the concepts. Then we will study the pair-wise relationships of these strategies. We will build our model according to the findings we have found in the literature. After building our model, we will explore it in Autoliv Electronics to see how it works in practice. Briefly, our model states the following: Modularization is an enabler of customization and it is necessary for the success of mass customization where set-up costs are critical. Product architecture modularity provides rapid assembly and cost efficiency that is required for postponement and mass customization. In addition, it is used to measure the mass customization degree according to some others. Postponement requires process modularity, and it moves the customer order decoupling point downstream in the value added material flow. It contributes the mass customization by increasing both the leanness and agility. Customer order decoupling point uses the customer requirements and existing capabilities of the mass customization for optimizing the flexibility-productivity balance.

The quality of car accessories is more and more important in recent year and consumer awareness of product quality also has been significant. This study bases on the factor s of quality management and mass customization capability to car accessories industry and weather is there any different between them to do our study. This article not only explores industrial dynamics and related literature but also with questionnaire and statistical methods to analyses collected data. The results showed small group problem and Customer focus.

The leading effort for creating a standard semantic basis for business documents to solve the electronic business document interoperability problem came from the UN/CEFACT (United Nations Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business) Core Components Technical Specification (CCTS) through a conceptual document modeling methodology. Currently, the main challenge in using UN/CEFACT CCTS based approaches is that the document artifacts are stored in spreadsheets and this makes it very difficult to discover the previously defined components and to check their consistency. Furthermore, businesses need to customize standard documents according to their specific needs. The first XML implementation of UN/CEFACT CCTS, namely, Universal Business Language (UBL) provides detailed text-based descriptions of customization mechanisms. However, without automated tool support, it is difficult to apply the customization and to maintain the consistency of the customizations. In this thesis, these problems are addressed by providing an online e-business document design and customization environment, i.e. iSURF eDoCreator, which integrates the machine processable versions of paper-based UN/CEFACT CCTTS modeling methodology and UBL customization guidelines, accompanied with an online common UN/CEFACT CCTS based document component repository. In this way, iSURF eDoCreator environment aims to maximize re-use of available document building blocks and minimize the tedious document design and customization efforts. The environment also performs the gap analysis between different customizations of UBL to show how interoperable is the compared document models. The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Community&#039 / s FP7/2007-2013 under grant agreement n&deg / 213031, the iSURF Project.

The starting motivation of this study is to develop an intuitively strong approach to addressing architectural design problems through computational models. Within the scope of the thesis, the complexity of an architectural design problem is modeled computationally by translating the design reasoning into parameters, constraints and the relations between these. Such a model can easily become deterministic and defy its purpose, if it is customized with pre-defined and unchangeable relations between the constraints. This study acknowledges that the relations between design constraints are bound to change in architectural design problems, as exemplified in the graduation project of the author. As such, any computational design model should enable designers to modify the relations between constraints. The model should be open for modifications by the designer. v The findings of the research and the architectural design experiments in the showcase project suggest that this is possible if mass customized sequences of abstract, modifiable and reusable relations link the design constraints with each other in the model. Within the scope of this thesis, the designer actions are mass-customized sequences of relations that may be modified to fit the small design tasks of relating specific design constraints. They relate the constraints in sequence, and are mass customized in an abstract, modifiable and reusable manner. Within this study, they are encoded in Rhino Grasshopper definitions. As these mass customized relations are modifiable, they are seen as a remedy for enabling the designers to build models that meet individual and intuitive needs of the design problems that designers define.