Essays on smart customization: towards a better understanding of the customer´s perspective on smart customization offers

Benade, Morgane; Piller, Frank Thomas; Le Masson, Pascal

doi:10.18154/RWTH-2019-00431

Essays on smart customization: towards a better understanding of the customer´s perspective on smart customization offers

Benade, Morgane

2018 & 2019

Verantwortlichkeitsangabevorgelegt von Dipl. Ing. Morgane Sophie Benade, M.Sc.

ImpressumAachen ; Paris 2018

Umfang1 Online-Ressource (xv, 181, 20 Seiten) : Illustrationen, Diagramme

Dissertation, Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen, 2018. - Dissertation, MINES ParisTech, 2018

Cotutelle-Dissertation. - Veröffentlicht auf dem Publikationsserver der RWTH Aachen University 2019

Genehmigende Fakultät
Fak08

Hauptberichter/Gutachter
Piller, Frank Thomas (Thesis advisor)^RWTH* ; Le Masson, Pascal (Thesis advisor)

Tag der mündlichen Prüfung/Habilitation
2018-02-09

Online
DOI: 10.18154/RWTH-2019-00431
URL: http://publications.rwth-aachen.de/record/753169/files/753169.pdf

Einrichtungen

Lehrstuhl für Betriebswirtschaftslehre, insbesondere Technologie- und Innovationsmanagement (812710)

Inhaltliche Beschreibung (Schlagwörter)
smart products (frei) ; use generative goods (frei) ; user toolkits for innovation (frei)

Thematische Einordnung (Klassifikation)
DDC: 330

Kurzfassung
In den letzten zehn Jahren wurden Produkte immer mehr mit Informations- und Kommunikationstechnologie (IKT) in Form von Sensoren, Software und Datenelementen ausgestattet, was die Art ihrer Anwendungen stark verändert hat. Insbesondere finden Unternehmen nun endlich ein Mittel, ihre Kunden zu befähigen, Produkte nach dem Kauf individuell anzupassen ("Smart Customization"). Damit eine solche "intelligente" Anpassung erfolgen kann, verfolgt die vorliegende Dissertation die Idee, Toolkits für User Co-Design in Verbraucherprodukte einzubetten. In drei Studien wird dieses Feld untersucht. Papier I untersucht Smart Customization aus einer Kundenperspektive. Dementsprechend erweitert es die bisherige Forschung im Bereich der Individualisierung. Die Studie testet ein Technologieakzeptanzmodell anhand der Daten von 263 Teilnehmern aus der Automobilindustrie und 250 Befragten aus dem Mobilfunkbereich. Mit dieser Studie trägt die Dissertation zur Theorie und Praxis bei, indem sie zum einen die Idee der Smart Customization konzeptionell erweitert, zum anderen Unternehmen praktische Implikationen bietet, um diese Strategie umzusetzen. In Papier II zeigt die Dissertation, dass es wichtig ist zu verstehen, wie Kunden ein solches Angebot in Abhängigkeit von Designmerkmalen auswählen. Hierzu wird eine Conjoint-Analyse auf Beispiel eines Szenarios von Mobiltelefonen durchgeführt. Ausgehend von einer Analyse von 250 Handybesitzern bestätigen die Ergebnisse alle getroffenen Hypothesen. Diese Studie liefert validiertes Wissen über Kundenpräferenzen bei Smart Customization. In Artikel III zielt darauf ab, in einem theoretischen Modell die Interaktionsmuster von Co-Design-Toolkits in Smarten Produkten zu erforschen. Ziel ist, Mechanismen des Co-Designs aufzudecken, die Wirkungsweise dieser Mechanismen zu identifizieren und auftretenden Herausforderungen aufzuzeigen. Hierzu wird auf moderne Ansätze der Designtheorie zurückgegriffen.

In the last decade, our products have been more and more equipped with information and communication technology (ICT) in a form of sensors, software, data elements, which has modified the nature of their applications greatly (Rijsdijk & Hultink, 2009). Notably, firms finally find a mean to empower customers to customize their products after purchase. One talks about “Smart Customization”. For this smart customization to happen, the idea is to embed directly some smart user toolkits for co-design (smart UTCD) composed of ICT elements into consumer products. Such systems that consist principally of software tools and data elements can be viewed as - referring to their most basic versions - a CAD system, but with a friendly user interface and a library of modules and functionalities (Piller & Salvador, 2016). That said, while in the business press, it largely views smart customization as an opportunity to be tapped (see, e.g., Bechtold et al., 2014; Ernest-Jones, 2008; Porter & Heppelmann, 2014), in contrast, research is hardly focused on it (Piller, Ihl & Steiner, 2010). Yet, it appears essential to identify factors of customer-based success of customization offers (Ihl, 2009). Prior research on mass customization has begun to explore various perspectives to address the topic, that is, from the perspectives of the technology acceptance or customer´s choice process (see, e.g., Dellaert & Dabholkar, 2009; Piller et al., 2010). In light of this groundwork, a comprehension of the customer´s perspective on smart UTCD seems necessary. Thereby, in paper I, the dissertation looks for evidence from the customer´s perspective whether smart customization is an applicable approach for firms to consider. That is, it extends previous research related to the customer´s responses on the customization offers (e.g., Guilabert, 2005; Piller et al., 2010; Simonson, 2005) by investigating the customer´s intention to utilize smart UTCD and its contingent factors. Explicitly, it adapts and tests a technology acceptance model to smart UTCD. Results from the structural equation modelling of 263 panelists from the car industry and 250 respondents from the mobile phone one, validate all the hypotheses made expect one in the model. With this study, such part of the dissertation contributes to theory and practice by adding to our limited understanding of the smart UTCD acceptance and by providing producers with practical implications to meet the smart UTCD acceptance. In paper II, the dissertation shows that it is important to understand how customers select a smart UTCD in function of the design features. That is, smart UTCD have the singularity to be consumer products. Therefore, as most customers often purchase products not well suited for them, it is essential to investigate the selection process for a smart UTCD. To test the theory, which is built on the one from McFadden (1986), a choice based conjoint analysis is realized on the smart UTCD for mobile phones. Resulting from an analysis of 250 mobile phone owners, the findings confirm all the hypotheses made. With such results, this section of the dissertation contributes to theory by providing in-depth knowledge on the customer preferences on the smart UTCD´ design features. For producers, it permits to derive a set of judicious design tactics that enables them to develop smart UTCD that suit better their target customers. In article III, the dissertation seeks to provide interaction patterns of smart UTCD to co-design with customers the optimal solution or design. For such purpose, it makes use of a theoretical framework of use generation (Brown, 2013) and applies it on the two existing types of smart UTCD. In doing so, it permits to expose the mechanisms of co-design, identify the natures of these mechanisms and pinpoint the difficulties that occur. Finally, with such findings, the paper suggests measures in a form of additional services (i.e. for support and supervision) under which the co-design mechanisms are more effective (i.e. interaction patterns). So, how the paper contributes to theory and practice? It utilizes modern design theories for the first time in this research to open the black box of the co-design mechanisms that occur between customers and smart UTCD. Moreover, it proposes additional services along with smart UTCD that focus on increasing the effectiveness of the co-design processes so as permit firms to develop the right smart customization offers in function of the various types of customers. Altogether, the dissertation contributes to a more holistic and balanced assessment of smart customization offers from the customer´s perspective.

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