High involvement – Does it fit all mass customization strategies?

This paper focuses on how high-involvement (HI) practices impact a firm’s masscustomization capability (MCC) and how this impact is influenced by the degree of product customization (DPC) that the firm provides to its customers. The study finds support for the hypotheses that HI practices improve MCC when they are adopted jointly (configuration hypothesis) and fit the firm’s strategic decision on the DPC to be provided to customers (contingency hypothesis). This study is the first to take full advantage of the contingent configurational perspective advocated in the strategic human-resource-management (HRM) literature to examine the effects of HRM practices on MCC.