Where can I learn more about mass customization & open innovation ?
On this page, I have listed some links to general publications on the topics, some downloads of my own publications, and many links where you can start to look for more information. A great source of the most recent research & case studies are the proceedings of the MCPC conferences.
Introduction
Texts - Recent Research Papers - Index of Postings to MC&OI Blog
Internet
Links - MCPC Conference Documentation - German
MC Meetings Documentation
Books
on Mass Customization - Books on Open Innovation - Books on Related Topics
Frank
Piller's English Books - Frank Piller's German
Books - Frank Piller's MC & OI Newsletter
 The largest database of online configuration toolkits. More than 500 online configurators from all industries (external link to our cooperation partner cyledge).
Video Interviews on Mass Customization & Personalization
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Brief
Introductions into MC & OI |
The following press reports provide a good introduction into mass customization and open innovation:
Mass Customization
 The Personal Touch: Mass Customization, SAP Info - The SAP Magazine, Vol. 120, September 2004: 12-16. pil2005-3.pdf,  pil2005-3d.pdf,  pil2005-3j.pdf
 Customers as Co-Designers: The miAdidas mass customization strategy, IEE Manufacturing Engineer, Vol. 82, August 2003: 42-46. iee03.pdf
User co-creation & crowdsourcing ("interactive value creation")
 Interactive value creation with users and customers. In: Anne S. Huff (ed.): Leading Open Innovation, Munich: Peter-Pribilla-Foundation 2008: 16-24. piller_2008-pribilla.pdf
Open / User Innovation
 An interview with Eric von Hippel, MIT, on Democratizing Innovation. MC&OI Blog 2005 . Download.
 Von Open Source zu Open Innovation, Harvard Business
Manager, 25 (2003) 12 (Dezember): 114. hbm03.pdf
More press coverage can be found here. |
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Executive Education and Presentations on MC & OI |
 Corporate Lectures and Conference Keynotes: Creating value by integrating customers with mass customization
and open innovation strategies is a fascinating topic for conferences
and workshops on corporate strategy, innovation, marketing,
and relationship management. More information.
Webinar Downloads: Listen to my most recent examples & case studies(1) Executive briefing on mass customization. (2) A trend report on user co-creation and user manufacturing. These webinars provide a brief but comprehensive introduction into my main thinking in the areas of open innovation, user innovation, and user co-creation. (Use code "aix" at check-out for a 10% discount!)
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Internet
Links to Mass Customization Sites |
 Internet Links: del.icio.us community bookmarks for mass
customization and user
/ open innovation
(Contribute
to this collection by tagging your web discoveries with mass_customization
or open_innovation. How
this works...) |
Web Sites with information about mass customization (I am only listing sites which have general information on the topic -- no single examples or vendors):
Mass Customization Resource Centre: Nottingham University, UK: Bart MacCarthy and his team did a great job in making this very helpful web site with plenty of literature, definitions, and articles
Le Blog de la Mass Customization: Great French Blog full of MC examples. I just understand basic French, but can see the pictures and examples.
The Wikipedia Article on Mass Customization still is rather bad, but at least the link list in the end is getting more balanced.
Customize-your-life: Directory of sites offering custom-made and mass customized products
Configurator Database: A great listing of many configuration toolkits on the web. Plus video interviews with key players.
Made For One: One of my favorites. News about companies using mass customization and personalization
Mass
Customization & Open Innovation Blog: My own blog on mass customization and open innovation
MIT Smart Customization Group: New group at MIT Design Lab dedicated to MCP research.
MIT
User Innovation Web Site: Repository of papers on user innovation
Best Practice Business Blog Mass Customization Posts: This is one of the largest German blogs, and its authors recently added more and more good reports on new mass customization companies. If you understand German, very worthwhile to read.
International Institute on Mass Customization & Personalization (IIMCP): Society to provide a platform for interaction between researchers and practitioners on mass customization, personalization and related issues.
Finnish Institute of Mass Customization and Personalization FIMCP: Local chapter of the IIMCP
Central European Mass Customization Research Center: Local chapter of the IIMCP
Advanced Manufacturing Institute (AIM), The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology: Leading international research group on design and manufacturing for mass customization
The Center for Product Modelling: Large center in Denmark on product configuration |
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MC
& OI Papers by Frank Piller |
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A selection
of my recent writings on mass customization, personalization,
and open innovation
Frank Piller: Interactive value creation with users and customers. In: Anne S. Huff (ed.): Leading Open Innovation, Munich: Peter-Pribilla-Foundation 2008: 16-24. Download:piller_2008-pribilla.pdf
Frank T. Piller and Dominik Walcher: Toolkits for idea competitions: A novel method to integrate users in new product development, R&D Management, 36 (2006) 3: 307-318. Download at userinnovation.mit.edu [working paper version]
Susumu Ogawa
& Frank T. Piller: Collective Customer Commitment: Reducing
the risks of new product development, MIT Sloan Management
Review, 47 (2006) 2 (Winter 2006): 65-72.
Download: pdf
version and abstract [Online edition of the journal]
Christoph
Berger, Kathrin Moeslein, Frank Piller, and Ralf Reichwald: Co-designing
the customer interface for customer-centric strategies: Learning
from exploratory research, European Management Review, 2 (2005)
3: 70-87.
Download: pdf
and html [Online edition of the journal]
Frank Piller,
Petra Schubert, Michael Koch and Kathrin Möslein: Overcoming
mass confusion: Collaborative customer co-design in online communities,
Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 10 (2005) 4, 10th
Anniversary Issue of the Journal.
Download: piller.html
[Online edition of the journal]
Nikolaus
Franke and Frank Piller: Toolkits for user innovation and design:
exploring user interaction and value creation in the watch
market, Journal of Product Innovation Management, 21 (2004)
6 (November): 401-415.
Download: jpim04.pdf
[Adobe PDF-Format]
Frank Piller,
Kathrin Moeslein and Christof Stotko: Does mass customization
pay? An economic approach to evaluate customer integration,
Production Planning & Control, 15 (2004) 4: 435-444.
Download: ppc04.pdf
[Adobe PDF-Format]
Christoph
Berger and Frank Piller: Customers as Co-Designers: The
miAdidas mass customization strategy, IEE Manufacturing Engineer,
82 (2003) 4 (August): 42-46.
Download: iee03.pdf
[Adobe PDF-Format]
Nikolaus
Franke and Frank Piller: Key Research Issues in User Interaction
with Configuration Toolkits, International Journal of Technology
Management (IJTM), Vol. 26 (2003), No. 5/6, pp. 578-599.
Download (corresponding
working paper): TUM-AIBWP033.pdf
[Adobe PDF-Format]
Mitchell
Tseng and Frank Piller: The Customer Centric Enterprise,
in: M. Tseng and F. Piller (Eds.), The Customer Centric Enterprise:
Advances in Mass Customization and Personalization, New York/Berlin:
Springer 2003, pp. 1-18.
Download: tsengpiller2003.pdf
[Adobe PDF-Format]
The Market
for Customized Footwear in Europe: Market Demand and Consumer
Preferences. A project report from the EuroShoe
Project within the European Fifth Framework Program. Edited
by Frank T. Piller. Munich / Milan, March 2002.
Download:
euroshoe1.pdf [Adobe
PDF-Format]
Frank Piller:
Customer interaction and digitizability - a structural approach,
in: Claus
Rautenstrauch et al. (Hg.): Moving towards mass customization,
Berlin/New York: Springer 2002, pp. 119-138.
Download: pil2002-2.pdf
[Adobe PDF-Format]
Frank Piller
/ Ralf Reichwald / Kathrin Möslein: Information as a Critical
Success Factor for Mass Customization, Or: Why Even a Customized
Shoe Not Always Fits, Proceedings of the ASAC-IFSAM 2000 Conference,
Montreal, Quebec, Canada, July 2000.
Download: asac-ifsam2000.pdf
[Adobe PDF-Format, 79 KB].
Frank Piller
/ Ralf Reichwald / Christoph Lohse / Kathrin Möslein:
Broker Models for Mass Customization Based Electronic Commerce,
Proceedings of the Americas Conference on Information Systems
- AMCIS 2000, Long Beach, California, August 10th - 13th, 2000,
Vol II, p. 750-756.
Download: amcis2000.pdf
[Adobe PDF-Format, 83 KB]. |
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Download more papers,
book chapters, research reports and working papers here:
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Our
English Books on Mass Customization and Open Innovation |
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The
Customer Centric Enterprise: Advances in Mass Customization
and Personalization, edited by Mitchell M. Tseng and
Frank T. Piller, Springer New York / Berlin 2003 [Chinese
translation: 2004]
Following
an interdisciplinary approach, leading scientists and practitioners
in the field share in this book their concepts and strategies
for building a customer centric enterprise from the perspective
of design, production engineering, technology and innovation
management, customer behavior, as well as marketing. More
information |
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The
International Journal of Mass Customization (IJMassC), Imderscience,
Vol 1 (2005)
Finally: Mass Customization has its own journal. After
almost two years of planning, the first issue has just been
published. Contribute with your ideas, papers, research and
insights, and put the journal on your regular reading list
by subscribing it or recommending it to your library. More
information |
 Extreme Customization. Proceedings of the 2007 World Congress on Mass Customization and Personalization, edited by William J. Mitchell, Frank T. Piller, Mitchell Tseng, Ryan Chin, Betty Lou McClanahan, October 7-9, 2007 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The conference proceedings contain more than 2500+ pages on mass customization and personalization. More information. |
 Proceedings of the 2005 World Congress on Mass Customization and Personalization, edited by Frank Piller & Mitchell Tseng, Hong Kong, September 2005.
The MCPC 05 was a major international community meeting in the field of mass customization and personalization. The conference proceedings contain more than 800+ pages on mass customization and personalization. More information here. |
Proceedings of the 2003 World Congress on Mass Customization and Personalization, edited by Ralf Reichwald, Frank Piller & Mitchell Tseng, Munich October 2003.
The MCPC was the largest international event in the field of mass customization and personalization ever. The conference proceedings contain more than 1500+ pages on mass customization and personalization. More information here. |
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Our German Books on Mass Customization and Open Innovation |
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Interaktive Wertschöpfung. Open Innovation, Individualisierung und neue Formen der Arbeitsteilung, Ralf Reichwald & Frank Piller. Gabler Verlag, Wiesbaden 2006 More information. |
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Neue
Wege zum Innovativen Produkt: Mass Customization un Kundenintegration,
Frank Piller und Christof Stotko (eds.), Symposion 2003:
The
first individual book on demand on mass customization. Customize
your own book and read (and pay) onle for the topics and
cases which suit your personal inmformation desire.
More
information |
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Mass
Customization, Research book
based on the empirical study of 200 mass customizers,
by Frank T. Piller, 4th edition, Wiesbaden: Gabler/DUV
2006. More
Information
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Kundenindividuelle
Massenproduktion: Die Wettbewerbsstrategie der Zukunft,
managerial book - the first German book on the topic by
Frank T. Piller, with an introduction by B.
Joseph Pine II, München / Wien: Hanser 1998. More
Information
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Market
Study 2003: Configuration Systems
for Mass Customization -- Strategies, Success Factors and Technology of
Configuration Tool Kits, by Timm Rogoll and Frank Piller,
München: ThinkConsult 2003 (out of press)
More
Information |
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Modularisierung
in der Automobilindustrie – neue Formen und Prinzipien: Modular
Sourcing, Plattformkonzept und Fertigungssegmentierung als
Mittel des Komplexitätsmanagements,
von Frank Piller und Daniela Waringer, Shaker Verlag Aachen
1999, ISBN 3-8265-5827-8. More
information.
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Produktionswirtschaft
2000 - Perspektiven für die Fabrik der Zukunft, herausgegeben
von Kurt Nagel, Roland Erben und Frank Piller, Gabler Verlag.
Wiesbaden 1999, ca. 550 Seiten, ISBN 3-409-11461-0 (restlos
vergriffen) More
information. |
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Documentation
of the German Mass Customization Meetings |
Recent German language mass customization event (Feb. 2007)
2007: Frank Piller & Dominik Walcher: Zukunftsstrategien für Mass Customization. Die achte Mass-Customization-Tagung für Deutschland, Österreich und die Schweiz. Salzburg, 15./16.02.2007.
2005 and 2006: Due to my stay in these years in the USA, the events took place in form of on-invitation-only workshops in March 2006 and January 2006 at TUM, Munich. An external report is here.
2004: Michael Schenk / Ralf Reichwald / Ralph Seelmann-Eggebert
/ Frank Piller (eds): Mass
Customization - Methoden, Wissen, Anwendungen für die kundenindividuelle
Massenproduktion, Tagungsband zur sechsten deutschen Tagung
in Deutschland, 8.-9. November in Frankfurt a.M., Frankfurt/Magdeburg
2004 (more info
here).
2003: The Fifth German Mass Customization Conference was
organized as business seminar
as part of the MCPC 2003 in Munich, Germany.
2002: Frank Piller: Mass
Customization - Quo Vadis, Report on the German Mass Customization
Community Meeting - Bad Ems - November 2002, in: Mass
Customization News, Vol 5, No. 3 (2003).
2001: Frank Piller / Michael Schenk / Ralph Seelmann-Eggebert
(eds): Mass
Customization - Vom Businessmodell zur erfolgreichen Anwendung,
Tagungsband zur dritten deutschen Tagung in Deutschland, 8.-9. November
in Frankfurt a.M., Frankfurt/Magdeburg 2001 (more
info here).
2000: Frank Piller (ed.): Tagungsband "Potentiale
von Mass Customization und CRM im eBusiness", veranstaltet
vom AIB an der TU München und dem Fraunhofer IFF Magdeburg,
Frankfurt/M., 5.und 6. Okt. 2000, Frankfurt/München 2000 (more
info here)
1999:
Frank Piller (ed.): Tagungsband „Kundenindividuelle Massenproduktion:
Produkte, Fertigung, Marketing", veranstaltet vom Fraunhofer
IPT Aachen, Fraunhofer IFF Magdeburg, Lehrstuhl für Industriebetriebslehre
an der Universität Würzburg und der inTouch GmbH Bad Homburg,
14. April 1999, Würzburg 1999 (Proceedigs uut of print).
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Recent
issues:
.Back
issues of my MC&OI newsletter:
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Documentation of the World Congresses on Mass Customization & Personalization (MCPC) |
| The MCPC is the largest international series of conference in the field of mass customization, customerintegration, and personalization. The conference is held biannually, and participants come from academia, businesses, and consultancies (ratio: 50:40:10). The MCPC proceedings are a comprehensive source of reference from an interdisciplinary view.
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Recent Observations & Comments on MC&OI |
Index to all postings to my Blog on Mass Customization & Open Innovation. (Not covered in this index are the six years of postings into my old MC newsletter. Browse these old MC-related posts here.):
General Categories
- General: As the label says, all basic MC&OI related things of very general interest.
- Customization Trends: What I think is new and may become a trend in mass customization.
- Long Tail: This book made a strong case for MC&OI and postings that deal with this variety explosion get this tag.
- Open/User Innovation: The general tag for all postings on (lead) user innovation (or: outside innovation, distributed innovation, etc ...).
- Co-creation and Crowdsourcing are two related categories: The first is used for all kinds of user-input-contribution-based models, and the latter on explicit strategies of companies to utilize the distributed creativity and knowledge of their users.
- Personalization (What is the difference between personalization & customization? Here is my answer).
- MC Alternatives: How to fulfill the need for heterogeneous products without messy one-of-a-kind manufacturing
- Interviews refer to others talking about MC&OI in my blog.
- MC/OI on the Web is a category referring to links to external sources of information on MC & OI.
- Research Studies and academic research on MC&OI
- Events in the area of mass customizaton & co-creation.
- Deutsch (in German): Some posts are in German, as they contain information relevant only to those who can understand German.
Special categories: How to make MC & OI happen
- Technologies & Enablers : Postings on all kind of enabling technologies in general.
- Co-Design Process: Postings dealing with the process and experiences of customers co-designing their stuff.
- Offline Customization: Customization is often seen as web-only, but can be a great thing to enhance the store experience.
- Virtual Models are one way to do this.
- Design theory and concepts for mass customization.
- Fabbing: Rapid manufacturing, laser sintering, digital manufacturing -- new manufacturing concepts for MC.
- Related with this is User Manufacturing, the idea that manufacturers just provide manufacturing capability, and users do the rest.
Case studies: Who is doing what in MC & OI?
- Cases Consumer and Cases Industrial are the two general categorizations. Most posts are in the consumer category. But to get this better structured, the following new tags were introduced (new categories will come with appropriate postings):
- Service Customization: MC of services -- a future growth field!
- Books: Customization of books, print-on-demand, personalization of books.
- Clothing: Mass Customization of apparel and related items, with T-Shirts as an own sub-category.
- Footwear: Mass customization and some open innovation in footwear, with Sneakers (sport shoes) as a sub-category.
- Furniture - Home and related items Gifts: Products you typically customize to give them as a gift -- or which are nice customizable gifts for the Holidays!
- MC & Art: Art that refers to customization etc.
- Failures and Flaws: What did not work or still needs improvement
- For even more case studies, seee also the Case Study Section of this website.
Not covered in this index are the six years of postings into my old MC newsletter. Please browse these hundreds of old MC-related posts here. |
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Books on Mass Customization |
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Train-the-Trainer-Handbuch für Mass Customization: Ein didaktisch-methodischer Leitfaden, von Kristin Röder & Roswitha Weitz et al., Erfurt, Dezember 2004, ISBN: 3980933474 More information. |
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Individualisierte Produkte: Komplexität beherrschen in Entwicklung und Produktion, hg. von Lindemann / Reichwald / Zaeh. Springer 2006. ISBN 3540255060. More information. |
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The Second Century: Reconnecting Customer and Value Chain Through Build-To-Order; Moving Beyond Mass and Lean Production in the Auto Industry, von Matthias Holweg, Frits K. Pil, MIT Press, 2004, ISBN: 0262083329. More information. |
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Mass Customization: A Supply Chain Approach, von Charu Chandra & Ali K. Kamrani, Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2005, ISBN: 0306485052. More information. |
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Information and Management Systems for Product Customization, von T. Blecker, G. Friedrich, B. Kaluza et al., Springer, 2004, ISBN: 0387233474. More information. |
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Die praktische Relevanz von Mass Customization, von Michael Kreuzer, Haupt 2005, ISBN: 3258068763. More information. |
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Vertriebseffizienz durch Kundenintegration, von Christof M. Stotko, Deutscher Universitätsverlag, 2005, ISBN: 3824483076. More information. |
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Absatzsysteme für Mass Customization, von Stephan Jäger, Deutscher Universitätsverlag, 2004, ISBN: 3824480530. More information. |
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Zukunft Maßkonfektion: Technik, Markt und Management, hrsg. von Andreas Seidl, Stefan Mecheels, Gerd Wauer & Wolfgang Bruder,Deutscher Fachverlag, 2001, ISBN: 3871507210. More information |
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Mass Customization,Pine, B. Joseph II, Boston: Harvard Business School Press 1993, ISBN: 0875849466. More information |
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Markets of One: Creating Customer-Unique Value through Mass Customization, James H. Gilmore und B. Joseph Pine (eds), Harvard Business Review Book), 2000, ISBN: 1578512387 More information |
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firma.nach.maß, von Gaby Wiegran & Hardy Koth: Markt & Technik Verlag 2000, ISBN 3827270022, More information. |
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Kundenindividuelle Massenproduktion - Mass Customization in der Bekleidungsindustrie, von Oliver Wüntsch, Eul Verlag 2000, ISBN 3890127509. More information |
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Agile Product Development for Mass Customization, Anderson, David M., Chicago: Irwin 1997. More information. |
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Mass Customized Marketing -- effiziente Individualisierung von Vermarktungsobjekten und -prozessen, by Peter Schnäbele, Wiesbaden: Gabler 1997. More information. |
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Moving into Mass Customization: Information Systems and Management Principles, edited by C. Rautenstrauch, R. Seelmann-Eggerbert & K. Turowski, Springer, Berlin 2002, ISBN: 3540436111. More information |
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Books on Open Innovation and Value Co-Creation |
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Democratizing Innovation, von Eric von Hippel, MIT Press, 2005, ISBN: 0262002744. More information. |
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Die wunderbare Wissensvermehrung. Wie Open Innovation unsere Welt revolutioniert, von Olga Drossou, Stefan Krempl, Andreas Poltermann (Hg.). Heise Verlag 2006. ISBN: 3936931380. More information. |
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The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom,
Yochai Benkler. Yale University Press 2006. More information |
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Open Innovation, von Henry W. Chesbrough, Harvard Business School Press, 2003, ISBN: 1578518377. More information |
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The Future of Competition, von C.K. Prahalad & Venkat Ramaswamy, Harvard Business School Press, 2004, ISBN: 1578519535. More information. |
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Der Kunde als Dienstleister, von Oskar Grün & Jean-Claude Brunner, Gabler, 2002, ISBN: 3409120033. More information. |
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FAB: The Coming Revolution on Your Desktop--From Personal Computers to Personal Fabrication, von Neil A. Gershenfeld, Basic Books, 2005, ISBN: 0465027458. More information. |
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Produktentwicklung mit virtuellen Communities, von Cornelius Herstatt & Jan G. Sander (eds.), Gabler, 2004, ISBN: 3409124764. More information. |
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The Support Economy: Why Corporations Are Failing Individuals and the Next Episode of Capitalism, von James Maxmin & Shoshana Zuboff, Penguin Books, 2004, ISBN: 0142003883. More information.
(Contians the best analysis why markets are moving towards individualization) |
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Der arbeitende Kunde. Wenn Konsumenten zu unbezahlten Mitarbeitern werden. G.G. Voß und Kerstin Rieder. Campus Verlag 2005. ISBN: 3593378906. More information. |
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The Experience Economy, B. J. Pine, James H. Gilmore, Harvard Business School Press, 1999. More information. |
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Managing Customer Relationships, von Don Peppers & Martha Rogers, John Wiley & Sons, 2004, ISBN: 047148590X. More information. |
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Pathways to agility - Mass Customization in action, Oleson, John D., New York: Wiley 1998. More information |
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