The Antecedents of the Sources of Value of Mass Customization According to Different Categories of Products: Individual and Contextual Variables

This research has for main goal the identification of the individual variables (involvement product, expertise and perceived risk) and contextual variables (level of complexity and perceived level of personalization) ac-cording to different categories of products and their relationship with the sources of value of mass customiza-tion (MC) (mass customized product value and co-design process value). Through analysis of a netnography of 200 comments left by people who have customized three different categories of product corresponding to private/public consumption (swimsuit, shoe, game controller), we have demonstrated that the individual and contextual variables influencing the perception of value differ from one customizable product to another, and the sources of value of MC are not identical for all products. We have shown that involvement product can have an effect on the utility value but not on the value of interpersonal differentiation. We have also shown that perceived expertise can have an impact on the values related to MC experience, such as hedonic value. When we live a MC experience several times, it will be more fun to customize the product. In addition, we found that the level of perceived complexity can have an effect on the value of interpersonal differentiation. The easier the MC process is to use, the more the individual tends to spend time customizing the product to make it unique. This uniqueness value is also related to the perceived level of customization. In other words, the more choices we have, the more we will create a unique product.