Abstract

The convenience and flexibility due to the spread of Internet allowed consumers to easily participate in marketing activity. Consumers want to participate in designing, manufacturing, delivering of products and service by expressing their opinions to the companies because they want to buy customized goods where their requirements are incorporated. We can expect that, through this interactive process of customization between consumers and companies, strong relationship quality may be built as a result of the interaction. The main purpose of this study is to examine the influence of consumer perception of customization on relationship quality in the e-business context. To accomplish this purpose, I reviewed the concept of customization, identified the perceptive factors of customization in e-business context (i.e., perception of participation level, assessment of flexibility), and examined the type of customization. Whether customization type generates varying degrees of perception of customization and relationship quality is revealed. As a result, collaborative product/service customization generated the highest relationship quality. Assembled product customization that was built based only on predicted consumer needs without any interaction between consumer and company showed a low level of relationship quality. And this type had no significant difference from standardized products. In short, there is a strong need for e-business companies to interact with consumers to improve relationship quality.

Full Text
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