Organisation design strategies for mass customisation: An information-processing-view perspective

The need to transform the organisation for mass customisation has long been recognised in literature, but the discussion has largely relied on anecdotal evidence or case studies and has limitedly taken advantage of insights from organisation theory. In this paper, we draw on organisational information-processing theory to develop solid theoretical links between mass customisation capability and four organisation design strategies aimed at either increasing an organisation’s information-processing capacity or decreasing its information-processing needs. We then test the hypothesized relationships using a sample of 238 manufacturing plants from three industries and eight countries and find that mass customisation capability is positively related to self-containment of tasks, environmental management, and use of lateral relations. We conclude by discussing implications of our results for both research and practice.