Knowledge based mass customization strategies – cases from Finnish metal and electronics industries

Rise and development of the e-Business has led to transformation of many traditional markets and born of new ones. Companies have been forced to change themselves to be more customer oriented and turn their mass production strategy to mass customization strategy. In this research we outline the development paths of forty case companies in Finnish metal and electronics industries. Objective was to find out the state of art in e-Business strategies in each company and how it is related to utilization of mass customization strategies. As a result, the "Four evolutionary phases of e-Business" is suggested as the companies move toward to what we call knowledge business (k-Business) era. It is suggested that in order to be successful in mass customization strategies companies need to build up k-Business systems.