IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/net/wpaper/0833.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Mass Customization with Vertically Differentiated Products

Author

Abstract

We analyze a duopoly game in which products are initially differentiated in variety and quality. Each consumer has a most preferred variety and a quality valuation. Customization provides ideal varieties but has no effect on product qualities. The firms first choose whether to customize their products, then engage in price competition. We show that in equilibrium either both firms customize, only the higher quality firm customizes, or no firm customizes. Even if customization is costless, the firms might not customize. This happens when the quality difference between the firms is small. We explore how the total welfare changes with the fixed cost of customization. Interestingly, the relationship is not always monotonic. Contrasting with the situation when customization is not feasible, both consumer surplus and total welfare are higher when one or both firms customize.

Suggested Citation

  • Oksana Loginova & X. Henry Wang, 2008. "Mass Customization with Vertically Differentiated Products," Working Papers 08-33, NET Institute.
    • Handle: RePEc:net:wpaper:0833
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.netinst.org/Loginova_Wang_08-33.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Suresh Kotha, 1995. "Mass customization: Implementing the emerging paradigm for competitive advantage," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 16(S1), pages 21-42.
    2. Selladurai, R. S., 2004. "Mass customization in operations management: oxymoron or reality?," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 32(4), pages 295-300, August.
    3. Bernhardt, Dan & Liu, Qihong & Serfes, Konstantinos, 2007. "Product customization," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(6), pages 1396-1422, August.
    4. Niladri B. Syam & Ranran Ruan & James D. Hess, 2005. "Customized Products: A Competitive Analysis," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 24(4), pages 569-584, February.
    5. Nan Xia & S. Rajagopalan, 2009. "Standard vs. Custom Products: Variety, Lead Time, and Price Competition," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 28(5), pages 887-900, 09-10.
    6. Neven, D. & Thisse, J-F., 1989. "On Quality And Variety Competition," LIDAM Discussion Papers CORE 1989020, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Oksana Loginova & X. Henry Wang, 2011. "Customization with Vertically Differentiated Products," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 20(2), pages 475-515, June.
    2. Ajay Bhaskarabhatla, 2016. "The Moderating Role of Submarket Dynamics on the Product Customization–Firm Survival Relationship," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 27(4), pages 1049-1064, August.
    3. Oksana Loginova, 2010. "Competitive Effects of Mass Customization," Working Papers 1007, Department of Economics, University of Missouri.
    4. repec:umc:wpaper:0814 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Takagoshi, Noritsugu & Matsubayashi, Nobuo, 2013. "Customization competition between branded firms: Continuous extension of product line from core product," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 225(2), pages 337-352.
    6. Zhang, Chu & Zheng, Xiaona, 2021. "Customization strategies between online and offline retailers," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    7. Amit Basu & Sreekumar Bhaskaran, 2018. "An Economic Analysis of Customer Co-design," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 29(4), pages 787-804, December.
    8. Ayd{i}n Alptekinou{g}lu & Charles J. Corbett, 2008. "Mass Customization vs. Mass Production: Variety and Price Competition," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 10(2), pages 204-217, August.
    9. Li Chen & Yao Cui & Hau L. Lee, 2021. "Retailing with 3D Printing," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 30(7), pages 1986-2007, July.
    10. Oksana Loginova, 2009. "Brand Familiarity and Product Knowledge in Customization," Working Papers 0905, Department of Economics, University of Missouri.
    11. Oksana Loginova, 2010. "Brand familiarity and product knowledge in customization," International Journal of Economic Theory, The International Society for Economic Theory, vol. 6(3), pages 297-309, September.
    12. Loginova, Oksana & Wang, X. Henry, 2013. "Mass customization in an endogenous-timing game with vertical differentiation," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 164-173.
    13. Oksana Loginova & X. Hnery Wang, 2010. "Customization in an Endogenous-Timing Game with Vertical Differentiation," Working Papers 1008, Department of Economics, University of Missouri.
    14. Tian, Chen & Xiao, Tiaojun & Shang, Jennifer, 2022. "Channel differentiation strategy in a dual-channel supply chain considering free riding behavior," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 301(2), pages 473-485.
    15. Oksana Loginova & X. Henry Wang, 2009. "Customization: Ideal Varieties, Product Uniqueness and Price Competition," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 29(4), pages 2573-2581.
    16. He, Bo & Mirchandani, Prakash & Yang, Guang, 2023. "Offering custom products using a C2M model: Collaborating with an E-commerce platform," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 262(C).
    17. Wang, Shuai & Ma, Shuang, 2023. "Is product customization always beneficial in the context of C2M platforms? A signaling theory perspective," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 197(C).
    18. Jost, Peter-J. & Süsser, Theresa, 2020. "Company-customer interaction in mass customization," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 220(C).
    19. Haim Mendelson & Ali K. Parlaktürk, 2008. "Competitive Customization," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 10(3), pages 377-390, October.
    20. Loginova Oksana, 2012. "Competitive Effects of Mass Customization," Review of Marketing Science, De Gruyter, vol. 10(1), pages 1-32, October.
    21. Haim Mendelson & Ali K. Parlaktürk, 2008. "Product-Line Competition: Customization vs. Proliferation," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 54(12), pages 2039-2053, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    customization; horizontal differentiation; vertical differentiation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D43 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - Oligopoly and Other Forms of Market Imperfection
    • L13 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Oligopoly and Other Imperfect Markets
    • C72 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - Noncooperative Games

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:net:wpaper:0833. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Nicholas Economides (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.NETinst.org/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.