Qualitative modeling of a dynamic sustainable mass customization business model

For the last decades Mass Customization (MC) has been considered as a proper strategy for the markets characterized by the heterogeneous needs of customers. MC is usually considered as a win-win strategy that benefits both customers and companies. On one hand, customers can have the opportunity to create their own desired product to satisfy their individual needs while having the unique experience of co-design. On the other hand, firms can charge higher prices for customized goods because of the increased willingness to pay of customers for individualized goods while producing them at cost levels that are comparable to those of mass produced goods thanks to flexible manufacturing processes and suitable customer interaction tools. Subsequently, customers would be more satisfied and profit margins of the company would be higher. However, it might not be sufficient to assess the MC business model solely on the basis of economic indica-tors. Environmental problems and the exacerbating climate change have sparked a global debate about ecological thinking and sustainability. Customers’ demands for more environmentally-friendly products on one hand, and tough regulations by government on the other hand bring out the concept of sustainability as a point of attention for companies. Nevertheless, when it comes to environmental impacts of Mass Customization, things are less clear and more challenging. This study intends to target the problem of bridging Mass Customization and Environmental sustainability, particularly by basing it on two main gaps in the MC literature: 1) Lack of a holistic business model for success-ful implementation of MC 2) Evaluating the performance of such a MC business model in terms of Environmental Sustainability. To this end, this research aims at coining the new taxonomy of “Sustainable Mass Customization (SMC)” and developing a model to support MC companies in successful pursuit of the SMC strategy. Consequently, in the first part of the study, a MC business model and an environmentally sustainable business model are going to be developed based on both theoretical and empirical data. Thereafter and during the second part, the developed MC business model will be translated to a qualitative dynamic MC business model applying the principals of System Thinking and System Dynamics. Eventually based on empirical data, the impact of the MC business model on environmental sustainability is identified and the final qualitative SMC business model will be developed. The results of this study can benefit MC companies that intend to improve their level of MC performance while having an eye on enhancing their environmental sustainability performance as well. The final SMC busi-ness model enables these companies to configure their tailored SMC business model and become more eco-friendly without distracting them from their core business of Mass Customization.