Co-designing modes of cooperation at the customer interface: learning from exploratory research

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to explore new modes of cooperation among customers, retailers and manufacturers resulting from co‐design – a customer‐centric business strategy. Co‐design activities are performed at dedicated interfaces and allow for the joint development of products and solutions between individual customers and manufacturers. Our research on co‐design is based on a deep interaction with case companies, making the research itself a further collaborative effort. In this paper, we first explore collaboration challenges with a case company introducing customer co‐design (Adidas AG, a sport goods manufacturer). In a second step of exploration, we use findings from a larger database of case studies on customer co‐design or mass customization to identify four basic modes of cooperation between customers, retailers and manufacturers. In a final step, the understanding gained from this differentiation is refined using the Adidas case. From the perspective of management practice, our research contributes to a better understanding of the collaboration challenges following a customer‐centric business strategy. From the perspective of management research, the paper provides both a conceptual model of cooperation demands at the customer interface and a methodological framework for collaborative management research between academics and companies.

Mass Customization: Reflections on the State of the Concept

“…This often commands for a total redesign of the product and the costly development of flexible product architectures with enough slack to accommodate all possible fitting demands of the customer base. In sales, expensive 3D scanners or other devices are needed, which in turn demand highly qualified sales clerks to operate them (this is a major challenge for many mass customizers, see Berger, Moeslein, Piller, and Reichwald, 2005). This leaves mass customizers with the challenging situation that the most promising dimension of mass customization is often also the most difficult one to implement.…”

“…Another area where change management initiatives inside the manufacturer's organization have to take place is to define a fitting organizational arrangement at the customer interface including retailers and other intermediaries (Berger et al, 2005;Franke and Piller, 2003;Gummesson, 2002). This generates its own complexity: Traditionally, the competitive advantage of a retailer is based on its ability to provide an appropriate assortment of goods for the targeted market that falls within its capabilities for connecting with one or more distribution chains.…”

“…Research on multi-channel strategies for mass customization is sill lacking. Correspondingly, the mass customization retail practice is characterized by trial and error learning and experimentation (see as an example, the case of miAdidas documented in Berger et al (2005)). …”

Customer centricity: the construct and the operational antecedents

“…Berger, Möslein, Piller, & Reichwald, 2005;Pero & Lamberti, forthcoming;Rindfleisch & Moorman, 2003). In one of the few works on the theme, Gagnon and Chu (2005) argue the need for a downward alignment between the companies and the retailers to provide greater levels of customer centricity, in accordance with Sheth et al's (2000) argument that customer-centric marketing implies the shift of marketing from demand management to supply management.…”

On the Importance of Mediating Dynamic Capabilities for Ambidextrous Organizations

“…Strategic learning within a firm is considered highly valuable for its customers, as it enables firms to be better at understanding and learning from their needs. A firm with a stronger learning capability has larger absorptive capacities [68], and is therefore better able to learn [54,69]. Thus, we assume that customer orientation will only positively affect performance if it is combined with a learning culture.…”