Title: Exploring the potential of mass-customisation as an innovation in the express parcel delivery industry

Authors: Nisar Ahmed Aziz, John Sparrow

Addresses: The Initiative of Management Excellence, Birmingham, UK. ' Birmingham City Business School, Birmingham, UK

Abstract: Previous literature has considered the continuous need for organisations to innovate and discussed the concept and scope of mass-customisation. There has been more limited adoption of the strategy than might be anticipated from its logic. Organisations need mechanisms to assess the potential applicability of broad innovations to their realm. A key question is how organisations can assess the potential of mass-customisation as a strategy. Amongst the options available is a detailed analysis of the potential gaps in provision from a customer perspective. One way to identify these is through exploring critical incidents with customers and considering how systems might be developed to attune interactions more closely to their unique needs whilst still securing the benefits of mass provision. The article presents data from a case study business utilising critical incidents to identify potential for mass-customisation, and argues that the methodology can be of value in other settings.

Keywords: critical incident technique; express air cargo industry; innovation; mass customisation; express parcel delivery services; critical incidents.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBIR.2009.027206

International Journal of Business Innovation and Research, 2009 Vol.3 No.6, pp.634 - 650

Published online: 17 Jul 2009 *

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