Investigating the Role of Information Technology in Customized Product Design

Realizing product customization as ‘just a mouse click away’ is the ultimate dream of many organizations and customers. To date though, mass customization is generally delivered through standardized products or custom-assembly of standardized components – often neglecting the product development aspect of customization through providing custom-designed products. In this paper we address this gap, and in particular investigate – both theoretically and empirically – the role of IT in product development-related customization. We revert to the automotive industry, which although it has long progressed beyond ‘any colour as long as it is black’, still offers only limited customization possibilities to its customers.