Effect of query sequence flexibility on product configurator performance

Abstract

Product configurators have been widely used in Mass Customization (MC) to match customers’ requirements with the company’s offerings. The configuration process is important as it is directly linked to the economic value an MC offering can create. A good product configurator not only provides customers with good buying experience, but also assists the producer to receive a price premium, comparing with off-the-shelf products. Product configurators usually provide a set of predefined attributes for customers to choose from. Some product configurators operate in a deterministic manner, in which customers need to follow the default sequence to modify the configurable attributes. Others are flexible, so that customers can randomly access the configurable attributes. Since different customers may have different logic to modify the configurable attributes, it can be problematic if a customer’s logic is inconsistent with the default sequence of a deterministic product configurator. The mismatch may cause customer dissatisfaction or abandonment. In contrast, a flexible product configurator seems to be more user-friendly by providing more design freedom. However, as the number of configurable attributes increases, it may require more information processing and efforts from the customers, which could lead to customers’ tendency to follow the default sequence. This research investigated the effect of query sequence flexibility on product configurator’s performance, and whether such effect is influenced by the number of configurable attributes. Performance was assessed through six indices regarding the configured product, the configuration process and the configurator. Experiment results showed that the flexible product configurator was more preferred when the number of configurable attributes was between 6 and 10, but it could not always outperform its deterministic counterpart. Qualitative analysis was also included to provide more insights for companies that are implementing or planning to adopt MC as a marketing strategy.

Date of Award	2014
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology