The relationships among mass-customization enablers: A review of theory-testing research

Understanding the relationships among mass-customization enablers is crucial for the development of mass-customization implementation guidelines. The guidelines reviewed by Suzić et al. (2018, Production Planning & Control. 29 (10), 856-871) collectively focus on eight enablers and suggest a mainly sequential implementation process, mostly on the basis of analytical conceptual research and single case studies. The present paper complements Suzić et al.’s (2018) work by reviewing prior theory-testing research on the enablers of mass customization and on the relationships among them and by comparing the results of this stream of research with those of Suzić et al. (2018). This work not only leads to a richer picture than the literature on mass-customization implementation guidelines had offered, but also indicates several research gaps and mixed findings as interesting opportunities for future research.