Essay 1 examines how competitive strategies influence MC practices and how MC practices influence financial performance. A model is proposed to link both cost leadership and differentiation strategies with the coordinated implementation of MC practices of elicitation, process flexibility, and logistics, and finally, with the financial performance of the firm. The model is tested using data collected from mass customizers in China. Simultaneous equation modeling and hierarchical regression analyses are used to test the hypotheses embedded in the research model. The results reveal that both cost leadership and differentiation strategies have significant impact on MC practices. Moreover, the results indicate that a successful MC implementation requires that mass customizers use elicitation, process flexibility, and logistics in complement. Firms that can successfully implement all three MC practices tend to have better financial performance. / Essay 2 examines the relationships between supply chain integration (SCI) and MC capabilities. Based on data collected from 292 manufacturing firms located in different countries, the results show that both internal and customer integration contribute positively to MC capability. Positive interaction effects on MC capability are also found between internal and customer integration, and between internal and supplier integration. The results suggest that supplier integration play only a complementary role, supporting internal integration in the development of MC capabilities. Overall, the findings demonstrate the pivotal role of internal integration in supply chain integration. Though current research tends to view SCI as "outward-facing" integration, our results suggest that manufacturing finns should pursue internal integration as the foundation for successful MC. / Essay 3 investigates the roles of service and customer value co-creation in developing MC offerings. Using exploratory case study and grounded theory building, we analyze six Chinese manufacturers in the Pearl River Delta. According to the arguments of service-dominant logic (SDL), the two types of MC offerings (product-centric MC and solution-centric MC) are service provided by manufacturer (fundamental service and resource integration service), and customer value co-creation (information and knowledge exchange and integrated design and manufacturing). Using the configurational approach, we investigate the theoretical typologies among MC offerings, service, and value co-creation. The results suggest that an internal fit exists among the three elements, and the configuration needs to fit with the supply chain capability and task characteristics. / Mass customization (MC) has been considered an important competitive weapon of manufacturers all over the world. Many successful companies adopt it to deal with growing competition characterized by heterogeneous customer demands, accelerated new product development, and shortened product life cycles. Currently, MC has become an imperative in business competition and an important topic for researchers in many disciplines. This dissertation covers three issues about MC: 1) the impact of competitive strategies on MC practices; 2) the effects of SCI on MC capability; and 3) the roles of service and customer value co-creation in developing MC offerings. / [essay 1]. Competitive strategy and mass customization practices -- [essay 2]. Developing mass customization capability through supply chain integration -- [essay 3]. A field study of mass customization from service dominant logic perspective. / Zhang, Min. / Adviser: Xiande Zhao. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 73-03, Section: A, page: . / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2010. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 165-180). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [201-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI : ProQuest dissertations and theses, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstract also in Chinese.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2006. / The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file viewed on (February 27, 2007) Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Content Management Systems (CMSs) are widely used to create online communities supporting organizations, classes, and groups. These communities provide various functionalities, e.g. discussion forums, shared repositories for documents and links, collaborative spaces, and different communication channels, like chat or instant messaging. Often the range of functionalities offered is unnecessarily rich, and some remain unused, leading to cluttered users workspaces and difficulties in finding information. Currently, communities that are developed with CMS do not allow user customization. Even for the community owner (e.g. a teacher, a group manager), it is hard to customize the functionality and interface of a community, because this requires some programming skills. I have designed new CMS allowing users of an online community (both owners and regular users) to design and configure their personal view of the communitys dashboard by adding the functionalities that are present in the communitys homepage and arranging them on the screen according to their preferences.

An ideal user interface accommodates the requirements and abilities of its users, and every user has a specific set of needs that must be fulfilled in order for an interface to be useful. This thesis concentrates on using the post-deployment tailoring technique of customization in order to ensure that an interface meets a user's needs and abilities in a final, user-driven design step. To this end, the more entirely a UI can be customized, the more perfectly it can be transformed into a state that best suits its user. Very few systems offer complete customization: allowing the entirety of an interface to be customized, baring change to its interaction style. While a few systems do offer complete customization, no fully customizable system exists that is built using modern widget-based GUI's. This is the goal of the architecture described in this thesis, the Interface Manager. It uses interface building techniques to make cosmetic customizations and a command-driven style similar to that of Unix shells to make functionality customizations. This system allows interfaces to become well suited to their user, but it also offers open questions about user-initiated innovation in software and the scaling of visual interface design tools.

An ideal user interface accommodates the requirements and abilities of its users, and every user has a specific set of needs that must be fulfilled in order for an interface to be useful. This thesis concentrates on using the post-deployment tailoring technique of customization in order to ensure that an interface meets a user's needs and abilities in a final, user-driven design step. To this end, the more entirely a UI can be customized, the more perfectly it can be transformed into a state that best suits its user. Very few systems offer complete customization: allowing the entirety of an interface to be customized, baring change to its interaction style. While a few systems do offer complete customization, no fully customizable system exists that is built using modern widget-based GUI's. This is the goal of the architecture described in this thesis, the Interface Manager. It uses interface building techniques to make cosmetic customizations and a command-driven style similar to that of Unix shells to make functionality customizations. This system allows interfaces to become well suited to their user, but it also offers open questions about user-initiated innovation in software and the scaling of visual interface design tools.

Content Management Systems (CMSs) are widely used to create online communities supporting organizations, classes, and groups. These communities provide various functionalities, e.g. discussion forums, shared repositories for documents and links, collaborative spaces, and different communication channels, like chat or instant messaging. Often the range of functionalities offered is unnecessarily rich, and some remain unused, leading to cluttered users workspaces and difficulties in finding information. Currently, communities that are developed with CMS do not allow user customization. Even for the community owner (e.g. a teacher, a group manager), it is hard to customize the functionality and interface of a community, because this requires some programming skills. I have designed new CMS allowing users of an online community (both owners and regular users) to design and configure their personal view of the communitys dashboard by adding the functionalities that are present in the communitys homepage and arranging them on the screen according to their preferences.

Due to the growth of subscribers and contents, electronic newspapers have gradually changed the reading habits of Taiwanese people. Its customization, however, is limited to users¡¦ choice of information conten t. The arrangement of page layout, which is quite important to readers¡¦ preferences is seldom taken into consideration. Based on literature review, field interview, and portal websites observation, this study has proposed seven categories of information content and six dimensions of page layout customization that are concerned by PC hardware retailers. A customized electronic newspaper system was implemented according to the above ideas. Several PC hardware retailers were invited to test the usability of the system. The usage log files were also analyzed by statistical method to investigate the behavior of customized electronic newspaper.

Zugl.: Innsbruck, Univ., Diss., 2007 / Hergestellt on demand

Zugl.: Aachen, Techn. Hochsch., Diss., 2009.

Zugl.: Würzburg, Univ., Diss., 1999 u.d.T.: Piller, Frank Thomas: Kundenindividuelle Massenproduktion (mass customization) als wettbewerbsstrategisches Modell industrieller Wertschöpfung in der Informationsgesellschaft