Abstract In present-day Japan, more firms are beginning to apply postponed product differentiation in favor of providing mass-customized products. Mass customization can lead to competitive advantages in satisfying consumers’ individual needs. We propose a causal model to describe why and how Japanese distributors decide to postpone product differentiation and supply mass-customized products. The model was empirically tested by structural equation modeling with a dataset from Japanese automobile dealers, who have employed highly advanced mass customization systems and are world leaders in this practice. The results show that two environmental factors, uncertainty and innovation, affect firms’ expectations of their customers’ intentions to purchase mass-customized products and, in turn, firms’ decisions regarding postponing product differentiation in favor of mass customization. Mass customization has a high potential for growth in the future due to increasing levels of uncertainty and evolving forms of innovation.

中文翻译：

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什么决定了企业推迟产品差异化的意图？

摘要 在当今的日本，越来越多的公司开始采用推迟的产品差异化，以支持提供大规模定制的产品。大规模定制可以在满足消费者的个性化需求方面带来竞争优势。我们提出了一个因果模型来描述日本分销商决定推迟产品差异化并提供大规模定制产品的原因和方式。该模型使用来自日本汽车经销商的数据集通过结构方程建模进行了实证测试，这些经销商采用了高度先进的大规模定制系统，并且是该实践的世界领导者。结果表明，不确定性和创新这两个环境因素会影响企业对其客户购买大规模定制产品意图的预期，进而影响企业对客户购买大规模定制产品的意愿的预期。公司关于推迟产品差异化以支持大规模定制的决定。由于不确定性的增加和创新形式的不断发展，大规模定制在未来具有很大的增长潜力。