Mass Customization and Customer Centricity in Honor of The Contributions of Cipriano Forza 1St Ed 2023 Edition Thomas Aichner Editor Full Chapter

Mass Customization and Customer
Centricity: In Honor of the

Contributions of Cipriano Forza 1st ed.
2023 Edition Thomas Aichner (Editor)
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Edited by
Thomas Aichner · Fabrizio Salvador
Mass Customization
and Customer
Centricity
In Honor of the
Contributions of
Cipriano Forza
Mass Customization and Customer Centricity
Thomas Aichner • Fabrizio Salvador
Editors
Mass Customization
and Customer
Centricity
In Honor of the Contributions
of Cipriano Forza
Editors
Thomas Aichner Fabrizio Salvador
South Tyrol Business School Operations and Technology Management
Bolzano, Italy IE Business School
IE University
Madrid, Spain
ISBN 978-3-031-09781-2 ISBN 978-3-031-09782-9 (eBook)

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-09782-9
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Professor Cipriano Forza
Foreword: The Academic Story of Cipriano
Late afternoon, June 1992, Monte Berico. There are only three people in
the Operations Management Lab at the Institute of Management and
Engineering: Cipriano, another Ph.D. student, and me. Cipriano is
hunched over his keyboard. The data he’s working on for his doctoral
thesis isn’t quite adding up the way he’d like it to. He’s been sitting there
for weeks. His mobile rings and his eyes widen when he sees his wife’s
name appear on the display: “Where are you?” “I’m … on the way
home …” “You said you’d be back early!” Cipriano, abruptly jolted back
into the real world, stands up and motions us—as we try to stifle our
laughs—to be quiet: “I’ll be home in a few minutes.” He sits back down
and continues to tap away at his computer, the phone call already a dis-
tant memory. Sometimes, a person’s passion for research is all-consum-
ing. This comedic episode recurred on several occasions, each of which
has been etched into my memory.
His passion for study and research had taken hold of him definitively
the year before when he had visited Professor Roger Schroeder at the
Carlson School of Management, the University of Minnesota in August
to work on the design of the international survey on WCM (World Class
Manufacturing). The study, initially set to involve only Italy, the United
States, and Japan, was later extended to other several countries to com-
pare various companies’ practices and performance and to seek out the
connections between managerial practices and company performance.
vii
viii Foreword: The Academic Story of Cipriano
In Minnesota, as Roger Schroeder would say, there are two seasons:

winter and August. And so, it was that in the sweltering August heat,
Cipriano opted to forego his non-air-conditioned quarters in the college,
in favor of sleeping in the much cooler laboratory at the School of
Management—with a somewhat precarious setup, perhaps, but near the
computer, his inseparable work companion.
I was introduced to Roger by Cipriano during a EurOMA (European
Operations Management Association) conference that took place in the
UK. Roger later confided in me that he immediately understood that
Cipriano was talented, competent, willing, rigorous, and reliable: in
short, an ideal partner for the major international WCM project headed
up by Roger. The project lasted many years and involved numerous
researchers and professors, who were able to develop their skills in terms
of method and content. That project gave rise to many important publi-
cations. Many Ph.D. students used the WCM data and its research meth-
odologies in their training, as shown in part by their contributions to this
book. Countless Ph.D. students of Cipriano now hold positions as pro-
fessors or researchers in Italy and abroad, or major roles in important
organizations.
During the various phases involved in the WCM project as well as
many other research projects, such as his contact with companies, collec-
tion and data analysis, and drafting of reports and publications, Cipriano
showed an incredible ability to coordinate teamwork.
Over time, we gained a deeper understanding of his qualities and val-
ues: his respect for people and the ideas of others, his ability to listen, and
his dogged determination in defending his positions where their scien-
tific importance demanded it. And we have always considered him a man
of great rigor and method.
During the 1990s and early 2000s, we often worked together. We went
to international conferences where Cipriano usually presented his papers.
It was during these conferences that I garnered a great deal of admiration
and astonishment for this man, not only for his fluent English and clear
way of presenting his ideas but also for his unrivaled ability to captivate
and fascinate his audience as if he were an impassioned actor on the stage
of a theater. The source of his boundless charisma is still a mystery to me,
but it was unquestionably something completely spontaneous for him.
Foreword: The Academic Story of Cipriano ix
After several years spent as a researcher, Cipriano became an associate

professor in 1998. The competition took place at the Politecnico di
Milano. There were nine professors on the committee in total, three of
whom were former presidents of the Italian Association of Management
and Engineering (AiIG). The rules at that time involved an examination
of the applicants’ scientific qualifications and a university lecture on a
topic drawn at random a mere twenty-four hours in advance. The candi-
dates would spend those precious hours anxiously preparing the lecture.
Cipriano arrived in Milan with two suitcases of books, as “you never
know what topic they might choose.” On the day of the lecture, he made
no mention of the night he had just had, but I could tell from his eyes
that he had barely slept, instead of devoting himself to preparing for the
test to make a good impression on the committee, and rightly so.
He also spent three years teaching at the University of Modena and
Reggio Emilia. There, too, his willingness to engage with the group and
hardworking attitude was evident, as he demonstrated an inexhaustible
commitment to research, teaching, and organization in our Department.
The competition for full professorship came in 2005 and was held at
the University of Bari, though the candidates themselves were not present
and instead assessed based on their CV and publications. The competi-
tion rules were based on the candidates’ scientific qualifications using
many indicators, including Impact Factor. To become a full professor,
one must have what is known as “full scientific maturity.” The other can-
didates never stood a chance—all the indicators for Cipriano’s work were
of the highest possible level. The other committee members asked me to
pass on their warmest congratulations to the winner. It was a source of
great satisfaction and pride for me.
We have a saying at the university: “when you become a full professor,
you can start to relax.” If there’s one colleague who can prove that wrong,
it’s undoubtedly Cipriano. The “dance” continues (even though, as the
years go by, he’s less likely to “tread the boards” anywhere) in his activities
in the Department and international collaborations, one of particular
note being his teaching of research methods at the European Institute for
Advanced Studies in Management (EIASM).
His commitment to teaching in the Department of Management and
Engineering also remains strong, as he strikes up a special relationship
x Foreword: The Academic Story of Cipriano
with his students, eager to provide them with the stimulation and profes-
sional preparation they need to meet the challenges of work, life, and the
wider world. He also brought an equal and unwavering level of commit-
ment to his post as Director of the Ph.D. School.
In recent years, he has cultivated some significant lines of research for
which he has become an international point of reference, most notably
the phenomenon of “mass customization,” which also appears in
this book.
While I may have offered a contribution to Cipriano’s growth and
education over the years, I have also received a great deal in return from
him, both as a person and as a scientist. For this, I am grateful to him.
Roberto
Emeritus Professor of Management and Filippini
Engineering, Ph.D. supervisor
of Cipriano Forza
Preface
Presentation
This book honors the contributions and remarkable career of Cipriano
Forza, Professor of Management Engineering at the University of Padova,
Italy. He is a Member of the Scientific Committee of Academic Journal
Guide (ABS), an Associate Editor of the Decision Sciences Journal, and a
former Associate Editor of the Journal of Operations Management. As one
of the world’s foremost researchers in the area of mass customization and
operations management, Professor Forza published more than 200 scien-
tific articles with over 10,000 citations on Google Scholar. For his
groundbreaking work, he received several awards, including the Dr. Theo
Williamson Award for Excellence (1997), best paper awards by Production
Planning and Control (2005) and the Journal of Operations Management
(2006), the Harry Boer Highly Commended Award (2016), and the
EurOMA Fellowship Awards (2021).
Besides being a successful researcher and popular university professor,
Cipriano Forza is a wonderful individual, an inspiring mentor, and a fun
person to be around. The individual stories written by his former
Ph.D. students and found at the end of this book will provide the readers
a unique glimpse at the life of a beloved supervisor and friend.
The two editors of this book have completed their doctoral studies
under Cipriano Forza’s supervision and wish to express their gratitude to
xi
xii Preface
their supervisor with this Festschrift. The fact that so many colleagues,
friends, and former Ph.D. students answered the call to contribute to this
edited book is proof of his reputation and degree of esteem in the scien-
tific community.
Book Contents
Leading researchers and practitioners that have been working with the
honoree contributed a broad range of findings from conceptual and
empirical research about mass customization and personalization to this
book. The individual chapters take a customer-centric view on the chal-
lenges and opportunities of product and service customization from an
operations management, information technology, entrepreneurship,
marketing, and organizational perspective. The authors explore key ideas,
current developments, as well as future research directions.
The first chapter, written by Alessio Trentin and Fabrizio Salvador,
conceptually investigates the potential of form postponement for improv-
ing a manufacturer’s sales performance depending on its customers’ inter-
related preferences for customization and responsiveness. The chapter
argues that form postponement can foster customer utility not only and
not necessarily by ensuring the rapid delivery of many pre-specified prod-
uct variants—as typically assumed by prior research—but also by provid-
ing customers more time to articulate their needs or by sparing them the
trouble of forecasting how their needs will change during the product’s
lifespan. A typological theory linking form postponement type, customer
utility, and sales performance is hence proposed, which shows that the
operations’ ability to apply form postponement can play a much more
proactive role than implied by the existing literature in the definition of
a manufacturer’s marketing strategy.
In the second chapter, Aleksandra M. Staskiewicz and her co-authors
Lars Hvam, Anders Haug, and Niels H. Mortensen discuss the role of
stock keeping units management in product variety reduction projects.
Specifically, the authors study why companies may fail to achieve
Preface xiii
financial benefits in attempts to reducing product variety by investigating

an unsuccessful project at a global hearing healthcare company.
Chapter 3, by Igor Kalinic, is about the consequences of the interna-
tionalization of production on small and medium enterprises’ competi-
tiveness. The author conducts a case study using a mechanical company
that offers customized products to international clients and established
production subsidiaries abroad.
Enrico Sandrin carries out a systematic literature review about inter-
organizational enablers of mass customization in Chap. 4. By assessing a
wide variety of publications, he reveals several interesting insights, such as
that the focus in mass customization research is stronger on customers
rather than suppliers, for example, in terms of customer integration
rather than supplier integration.
In his second contribution (Chap. 5), Fabrizio Salvador and his co-
author Cipriano Forza—who was not aware that this work was going to
be published in a book dedicated to himself—report the result of an
international research project about the individual competences support-
ing the ability of a firm to customize efficiently its products. They inves-
tigate this topic through a multi-method design entailing 46 interviews
to subject matter experts and a survey of 276 managers operating in com-
panies that offer customized products. The study finds that people oper-
ating within an organization’s workflow contribute to reducing the
efficiency-flexibility trade-off by supporting the execution of three tasks
that cannot be fully codified “a-priori,” which the authors label prospect-
ing, blueprinting, and patching.
The sixth chapter is about online shopping preferences in mass cus-
tomization. Paolo Coletti, Thomas Aichner, and Abdel Monim Shaltoni
replicated a study from 2008 and compared some key customer percep-
tions and behavioral intentions with new data from 2021. The results
include temporal, age, gender, and other comparisons.
In contrast to the other contributions in this book, which are all
authored by academic researchers, Chap. 7 was written by a serial entre-
preneur and customization evangelist. Paul Blazek, founder and CEO of
cyLEDGE Media, Europe’s leading research-driven customization expe-
rience agency, shows the evolution of product configurators and
xiv Preface
highlights some lessons that can be learned by focusing on particular

customers’ needs.
Chiara Grosso explains in Chap. 8 what role customer engagement
plays in the online mass customization process. She proposes a concep-
tual representation of a social interactive feature design to take advantage
of word-of-mouth effects and user interaction. The proposed features
could result in several advantages, both for customers and mass
customizers.
Together with Michael Nippa and Amanda Brutto, Thomas Aichner
explores a hot topic in Chap. 9 that influences many of today’s advertis-
ing decisions: racial diversity. Using a customizable product as stimulus,
the authors conducted an online experiment to assess customer’s per-
ceived product value and willingness-to-pay depending on the ethnicity
of models used in the advertisement.
Chapter 10, authored by Thomas Aichner and Minh Tay Huynh, pro-
vides a systematic overview of the central publications of Cipriano Forza.
Through a bibliometric analysis, the readers receive an interesting insight
into research topics, publication outlets, co-citations, and more.
Zoran Anišić, Nenad Medić, and Nikola Suzić contributed a retro-
spective of the MCP-CE conference, whose scientific committee chair-
man is Cipriano Forza. This bonus chapter includes a historical overview
on this very important bi-annual event that gave many researchers and
practitioners a chance to connect with each other and to meet
Cipriano Forza.
Finally, we collected some personal stories and entertaining anecdotes
from Cipriano Forza’s former Ph.D. students.
Bolzano, Italy Thomas Aichner

Madrid, Spain Fabrizio Salvador
Acknowledgments
This Festschrift would not have been possible without the contribution
of the authors. In addition, several other people have helped to realize
this book and make it a success.
First and foremost, we are grateful to Professor Roberto Filippini, who
supervised Cipriano Forza when he was a doctoral student. His contribu-
tion closes the circle and provides an exclusive view on the career and
development of Cipriano Forza from being a Ph.D. student himself to
becoming a professor and Ph.D. supervisor.
Second, we acknowledge and appreciate the help of those who reviewed
the single chapters or earlier drafts of the book and provided valuable
feedback.
Third, a special thanks goes to the photographer Tamás Thaler, who
allowed us to use the snapshot of the honoree.
Finally, we thank our universities for providing the needed support
with regard to access to databases and other human or financial resources
needed to complete this book.
Associate Professor of Marketing Thomas Aichner

Former Ph.D. student of Cipriano Forza
Professor of Operations Management Fabrizio Salvador
First Ph.D. student of Cipriano Forza
xv
Contents
Part I Managing Mass Customization 1

Revisiting Form Postponement at the Operations-Marketing
Interface: Form Postponement Types, Customer Utility and
Sales Performance 3
Alessio Trentin and Fabrizio Salvador

The Role of SKU Management in Product Variety Reduction
Projects 37
Aleksandra Magdalena Staskiewicz, Lars Hvam, Anders Haug, and
Niels Henrik Mortensen

The Internationalization of SME Production: Organizational
Challenges and Strategic Opportunities 61
Igor Kalinic

Interorganizational Enablers of Mass Customization:
A Literature Review 85
Enrico Sandrin
xvii
xviii Contents

The Ghost in the Machine: A Multi-method Exploration of the
Role of Individuals in the Simultaneous Pursuit of Flexibility
and Efficiency101
Fabrizio Salvador and Cipriano Forza
Part II Online Sales Configurators and Communication 149

Online Shopping Preferences in Mass Customization:
A Comparison Between 2008 and 2021151
Paolo Coletti, Thomas Aichner, and Abdel Monim Shaltoni

Creating Customization Experiences: The Evolution
of Product Configurators179
Paul Blazek

Enhancing Users’ Digital Social Interactions While
Shopping via Online Sales Configurators211
Chiara Grosso

Impact of Racial Diversity in Advertising on the Perception
of Mass-Customized Products by Consumers239
Thomas Aichner, Amanda Brutto, and Michael Nippa
Part III Research, Publications and Engagement

of Cipriano Forza 273

Bibliometrics and Citation Analysis of the Works
of Professor Forza275
Thomas Aichner and Minh Tay Hyunh
Contents xix

Retrospective of the MCP-CE Conference in the Period of
2004–2020313
Zoran Anišić, Nikola Suzić, and Nenad Medić
Personal Statements by Former Ph.D. Students335
I ndex347
List of Contributors
Thomas Aichner South Tyrol Business School, Bolzano, Italy

Zoran Anišić Department of Industrial Engineering and Management,
Faculty of Technical Sciences, University of Novi Sad, Novi Sad, Serbia
Paul Blazek cyLEDGE Media GmbH, Vienna, Austria
Amanda Brutto Department of Communication and Economics,
Università degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy
Paolo Coletti Faculty of Economics and Management, Free University
of Bozen-Bolzano, Bolzano, Italy
Cipriano Forza Department of Management and Engineering,
University of Padova, Vicenza, Italy
Chiara Grosso Crisp Interuniversity Research Center for Public
Services, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milano, Italy
Anders Haug Department of Entrepreneurship and Relationship
Management, University of Southern Denmark, Kolding, Denmark
Lars Hvam Department of Management Engineering, Technical
University of Denmark, Copenhagen, Denmark
xxi
xxii List of Contributors
Minh Tay Hyunh Faculty of Economics and Management, Free

University of Bozen-Bolzano, Bolzano, Italy
Igor Kalinic European Innovation Council and SME Executive Agency,
European Commission, Brussels, Belgium
Nenad Medić Department of Industrial Engineering and Management,
Faculty of Technical Sciences, University of Novi Sad, Novi Sad, Serbia
Niels Henrik Mortensen Department of Mechanical Engineering,
Technical University of Denmark, Copenhagen, Denmark
Michael Nippa Faculty of Economics and Management, Free University
of Bozen-Bolzano, Bolzano, Italy
Fabrizio Salvador Operations and Technology Management, IE
Business School, IE University, Madrid, Spain
Enrico Sandrin Department of Management and Engineering,
Abdel Monim Shaltoni College of Business, Alfaisal University, Riyadh,
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Aleksandra Magdalena Staskiewicz Department of Management
Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, Copenhagen, Denmark
Nikola Suzić Department of Industrial Engineering, University of
Trento, Trento, Italy
Alessio Trentin Department of Management and Engineering,
List of Figures

Sales Performance
Fig. 1 Form postponement (FP) types and customer utility function 19

Projects
Fig. 1 Decision steps in the SKU classification method.
(Adapted from Van Kampen et al., 2011) 42
Fig. 2 Pareto analysis of products in the case company 46
Fig. 3 Process changes for a direct distribution to private label
customers and centralized SKU numbering 48
Fig. 4 Three levels of product variety 52
Fig. 5 Implications for research and practice 53
The Internationalization of SME Production: Organizational

Challenges and Strategic Opportunities
Fig. 1 Research framework 66
xxiii
xxiv List of Figures

Fig. 1 Boxplots for customers’ willingness to customize a product
online and age in 2008 and 2021 167
Creating Customization Experiences: The Evolution

of Product Configurators
Fig. 1 Industry categories of the Configurator Database 185
Fig. 2 Number of products per industry category in the
Configurator Database 2019/2020 (n = 1400)186
Fig. 3 Number of the most prevalent single products in the
Configurator Database 2019/2020 (n = 1400)187
Fig. 4 Percentage of responsive (device optimized) configurators
by industry, 2016 and 2019/2020 190
Fig. 5 Analyzed configurators by industry category 199
Fig. 6 Count of responsive (device-optimized) configurators versus
not responsive 200
Fig. 7 Count of open navigation versus process navigation 201
Fig. 8 Analyzed configurators by-product visualization style 201
Fig. 9 Analyzed configurators by visualization technology 202
Fig. 10 Analyzed configurators by available perspectives 203
Fig. 11 Average data transfer size by visualization technology in
megabytes204
Fig. 12 Count of configurators offering one to five customization
options, six to ten and more than ten options 204
Fig. 13 Count of configurators with included checkout capabilities
versus configurators without 205
Fig. 14 Count of configurators with checkout capabilities across all
industries excluding Motor Vehicles (n = 61)206
Fig. 15 Count of configurators with live price updates versus
configurators without 206
List of Figures xxv
Enhancing Users’ Digital Social Interactions While Shopping

via Online Sales Configurators
Fig. 1 The messy middle in customer journey. (Source: Our elaboration
from Rennie et al., 2020) 217
Fig. 2 The multi messy in the shopping via online sales configurators.
(Source: Our elaboration from Rennie et al., 2020) 219
Fig. 3 Dyadic interactions user/OSC. (Source: Franke et al., 2008) 220
Fig. 4 Exemplification of connection modalities between OSCs
and social software. (Source: Our elaboration) 222
Fig. 5 Users’ need to interact with specific shopping advisors. (Source:
Grosso & Forza, 2019) 226
Fig. 6 Timing of users’ need for digital social interactions.
(Source: Grosso & Forza, 2019) 226
Fig. 7 Overview of a collaborative co-shopping feature.
(Source: Kumar et al., 2016) 229
Fig. 8 K-interactive feature invitation options 230
Fig. 9 K-interactive feature invitation options 231
Fig. 10 K-interactive feature integrated into OSC front end.
(Source: Our elaboration) 232
Impact of Racial Diversity in Advertising on the Perception

of Mass-Customized Products by Consumers
Fig. 1 Fictitious advertisement for customizable shampoo from
Shampora with three White-skinned women as models (ad #1) 253
Shampora with two White-skinned women and one Black-
skinned woman as models (ad #2) 254
Sambora with two Black-skinned women and one White-
skinned woman as models (ad #3) 255
Shampora with three Black-skinned women as models (ad #4) 256
Fig. 5 Boxplot for perceived functional value (quality perceptions) by
ad version 260
Fig. 6 Boxplot for perceived emotional value by ad version 262
xxvi List of Figures
Fig. 7 Boxplot for perceived social value by ad version 263

Fig. 8 Boxplot for willingness to customize by ad version 265
Fig. 9 Boxplot for willingness to pay a higher price by ad version 266
Bibliometrics and Citation Analysis of the Works

of Professor Forza
Fig. 1 Search strategy and papers selection protocol 278
Fig. 2 The most influential documents by Professor Forza and the
co-authors from bibliographic coupling 292
Fig. 3 The most influential co-authors from bibliographic coupling 293
Fig. 4 The most influential organizations affiliated with Professor
Forza and the co-authors 294
Fig. 5 Visualization of co-occurrences of keywords (all years) 295
Fig. 6 Visualization of co-occurrences of keywords from papers
published between 1992 and 2000 296
Fig. 9 Most frequent co-authors based on citation analysis 299
Fig. 10 Map of theme clusters identified from co-citation analysis 300
Fig. 11 Map of the most cited journals by the analyzed papers based
on co-citation analysis 301
Fig. 12 Map of the collaborative network among Professor Forza and
the co-authors 301
Retrospective of the MCP-CE Conference in the

Period of 2004–2020
Fig. 1 Organizers of the first MCP-CE conference in Rzeszow, Poland
(2004)315
Fig. 2 Participants of the second MCP-CE conference in Rzeszow,
Poland (2006) 316
Fig. 3 Participants of the third MCP-CE conference in Palić-Novi
Sad, Serbia (2008) 317
Fig. 4 Mass Customization and Open Innovation (MC-OI) network 318
Fig. 5 APEM journal (Vol. 4, No. 1, 2009) 319
Fig. 6 Participants of the fourth MCP-CE conference in Novi Sad,
Serbia (2010) 320
List of Figures xxvii
Fig. 7 The first joint workshop on Mass Customization and Open

Innovation321
Fig. 8 Participants of the fifth MCP-CE conference in Novi Sad,
Serbia (2012) 322
Fig. 9 Participants of the sixth MCP-CE conference, the 1st Doctoral
Students Workshop (DSW) and the 16th Configuration
Workshop (CWS) 324
Fig. 10 The special award to Robert Freund for his exceptional
contribution to the MCP-CE community 325
Fig. 11 IJIEM journal (Vol. 5, No. 4, 2014) 325
Fig. 12 Cipriano Forza (Scientific Committee Chairman), Zoran
Anišić (Organizing Committee Chairman) and Paul Blažek
(Business Committee Chairman) 326
Fig. 13 FIVE STAR Participants (MCP-CE 2016) 327
Fig. 14 Panel discussion on digital customer experience 328
Fig. 15 Participants of the eighth MCP-CE conference in Novi Sad,
Serbia (2018) 329
Fig. 16 FIVE STAR Participants (MCP-CE 2018) 330
Fig. 17 Participants of the 3rd Doctoral Students Workshop (DSW) 330
Fig. 18 Online participants of the ninth MCP-CE conference in
Novi Sad, Serbia (2020) 331
Fig. 19 The 4th DSW participants 332
List of Tables

Sales Performance
Table 1 Form postponement (FP) types and uncertainty reduction 11
Table 2 Variables describing customer preferences for customization 15
Table 3 Form postponement (FP) types and customers’ preferences for
choice (C), adaptability (A), reconfigurability (RC) and
responsiveness (RS) 16
Table 4 Form postponement (FP) types and mass-customization
(MC) strategies 21

Projects
Table 1 Interviews conducted 44
Table 2 SKU numbering across customer segments 46
Table 3 Identified cost factors related to SKU number proliferation 49
Table 4 Results of SKU reduction in product portfolio 50
Table 5 Impact analysis of SKU reduction on the cost 51
xxix
xxx List of Tables
Interorganizational Enablers of Mass Customization:

A Literature Review
Table 1 Interorganizational variables focused on the relationships
between a mass-customization organization and its customers 89
Table 2 Interorganizational variables focused on the relationships
between a mass-customization organization and its suppliers 92
Table 3 Interorganizational variables concerning the relationships
between a mass-customization organization and its entire
supply chain or other external stakeholders 94
The Ghost in the Machine: A Multi-method Exploration of the

Role of Individuals in the Simultaneous Pursuit of Flexibility
and Efficiency
Table 1 Qualitative study 106
Table 2 Abilities identification and index construction 109
Table 3 Distribution of interview excerpts across different
customization workflow functions 120
Table 4 Quantitative study sample description: Frequencies of
selected characteristics 123
Table 5 Item correlations and summary statistics (n = 267)126
Table 6 (Empirical generalization) Means and mean differences for
prospecting, blueprinting and patching tasks across different
levels of flexibility and efficiency 131
Table 7 Differences in the importance of ability to execute
customization tasks (prospecting, blueprinting and patching)
among six different work functions 132

Table 1 Peer-reviewed articles published between 2000 and 2021 that
include (mass) customization/customisation/personalization/
personalisation in the title 156
Table 2 Survey questions of survey A in 2008 and survey B in 2021 162
Table 3 Demographics of survey participants of survey A in 2008
and survey B in 2021 165
Table 4 Major Internet activities in 2008 and 2021 165
Table 5 Customers’ willingness to customize a product online 166
List of Tables xxxi
Table 6 Customers’ willingness to customize by online shopping

frequency166
Table 7 Customers’ preference to buy from a mass customizer 168
Table 8 Customers’ willingness to switch to an online mass
customizer depending on waiting time 169
Table 9 Customers’ willingness to switch to an online mass
customizer by online shopping frequency 169
Table 10 Percentage of customers willing to switch from their old
brand to a mass-customization brand by product category
and gender 170
Creating Customization Experiences: The Evolution of

Product Configurators
Table 1 List of brand names and URLs of the selected configurators 195
Enhancing Users’ Digital Social Interactions While Shopping

via Online Sales Configurators
Table 1 OSC and social software connection modalities and variants 223
Impact of Racial Diversity in Advertising on the Perception of

Mass-Customized Products by Consumers
Table 1 Demographic data of survey participants 259
Table 2 Duncan’s multiple range test for perceived functional value
(quality perceptions) by ad version 260
Table 3 Duncan’s multiple range test for perceived emotional value
by ad version 261
Table 4 Duncan’s multiple range test for perceived social value
by ad version 263
Table 5 Duncan’s multiple range test for willingness to customize
by ad version 264
Table 6 Duncan’s multiple range test for willingness to pay a higher
price by ad version 265
xxxii List of Tables
Bibliometrics and Citation Analysis of the Works of

Professor Forza
Table 1 Most contributed topics from 2016 to 2020 279
Table 2 Data analysis in this work 281
Table 3 The quantity of articles published from 1992 to 2021 288
Table 4 Top co-authors of Professor Forza based on common
documents289
Table 5 Top organizations of co-authors based on the number of
documents290
Table 6 Keyword statistics 291
Table 7 Top five documents based on citations and link strength 298
Part I
Managing Mass Customization
Revisiting Form Postponement
at the Operations-Marketing Interface:
Form Postponement Types, Customer
Utility and Sales Performance
Alessio Trentin and Fabrizio Salvador
1 Introduction
Form postponement (FP) is an instance of the broader principle of post-
ponement that Alderson formulated as early as in 1950 to promote the
efficiency of “a marketing flow” (p. 15) or, to use today’s terminology, of
a supply chain. This principle proposes that both “changes in form and
identity” and “changes in inventory location” be postponed as much as
possible (Alderson, 1950, p. 15). Form postponement (FP) is the term
coined by Zinn and Bowersox (1988) to denote the application of this
A. Trentin (*)
Department of Management and Engineering, University of Padova,
Vicenza, Italy
e-mail: alessio.trentin@unipd.it
F. Salvador
Operations and Technology Management, IE Business School, IE University,
Madrid, Spain
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 3

T. Aichner, F. Salvador (eds.), Mass Customization and Customer Centricity,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-09782-9_1
4 A. Trentin and F. Salvador
principle to what Alderson (1950, p. 15) had called “changes in form and
identity” and Heskett (1977, p. 87), almost three decades later, had more
effectively termed “commitment of resources to specific end products”.
The same concept has also been dubbed in literature as delayed (product)
differentiation (e.g., Lee & Tang, 1997; Su et al., 2010), delayed/late
customization (e.g., Tibben-Lembke & Bassok, 2005; Ngniatedema
et al., 2015), manufacturing postponement (e.g., Nair, 2005; Kisperska-
Moron & Swierczek, 2011) or simply postponement (e.g., Zinn, 1990;
Feitzinger & Lee, 1997). What all these terms have in common is that
they refer to the deferral of transformation activities that specialize work-
in-progress inventory into specific product variants (Forza et al., 2008).
We will refer to these manufacturing tasks as product differentiation
activities (PDAs).
The fundamental benefit with which FP has typically been credited in
the academic literature is improvement of a supplier’s efficiency in serving
a market that requires the rapid delivery of many product variants
(Graman & Sanders, 2009; Choi et al., 2012). The fundamental mecha-
nism behind this widely accepted benefit is the reduction in the supplier’s
demand uncertainty (Cavusoglu et al., 2012). If a forecast-driven PDA is
postponed until customer order receipt, or at least to a point in time
closer to order entry, then the supplier’s uncertainty about the mix of
PDA outcomes that the market will demand is eliminated or at least
reduced. This decreases the inventory-holding costs that the supplier
must incur to guarantee a given customer service level (e.g., Zinn, 1990;
Aviv & Federgruen, 2001; Kumar & Wilson, 2009; Wong et al., 2011;
Varas et al., 2018). Savings in inventory are, as observed by Set and
Panigrahi (2015), the typical justification offered by the academic litera-
ture for the adoption of FP.
We contend that this picture of how FP creates value for a supplier is
overly simplistic, as it is restricted to the assumption that customers’ util-
ity is increased only through the rapid delivery of many pre-specified
product variants, as happens in the strategies of segmented standardiza-
tion and customized standardization (cf. Lampel & Mintzberg, 1996).
Yet, especially in the case of durable and expensive goods, customers’
utility may also be increased by giving customers the possibility to specify
product features that will require ad hoc engineering, as happens in the
Revisiting Form Postponement at the Operations-Marketing… 5
strategies of pure customization and tailored customization (cf. Lampel

& Mintzberg, 1996). With these strategies, the manufacturing process is
order-driven (cf. Lampel & Mintzberg, 1996) and this makes the demand
mix uncertainty reduction potential of FP useless. In these contexts, how-
ever, customers must anticipate their needs over a longer forecast window
because of a longer delivery lead-time and deferring a PDA would give
customers more time to explore their needs regarding the product
feature(s) created by that activity. We thus argue that, in these contexts,
uncertainty reduction does remain the fundamental benefit of FP but,
contrary to Bucklin’s (1965) prediction, what FP reduces is uncertainty
on the customer’s side.
Building on this idea, this work links what customers value in terms of
product customization and responsiveness—the latter meant as delivery
speed (McCutcheon et al., 1994)—with the type of FP implemented by
a supplier, where the FP type is defined by the temporal relationships
linking PDA, customer order receipt and product delivery before and
after FP implementation (Forza et al., 2008). By linking different FP
types with different customer utility profiles, our typological theory pre-
dicts the potential of FP to increase sales, rather than to reduce costs.
The results of our conceptual work contribute to the FP literature in
several ways. First, by drawing upon a more sophisticated model of cus-
tomers’ preferences for customization and responsiveness than done by
prior FP research, this chapter better integrates customer behavior into
FP decisions, as called for by van Hoek (2001). Notably, van Hoek’s
(2001) research agenda also included going beyond mere classification
schemes of FP applications and mere lists of relevant market characteris-
tics: In his view, in line with Doty and Glick’s (1994, p. 232) observation
that “typologies are intended to predict the variance in a specified depen-
dent variable”, more research was needed to develop FP typologies capa-
ble of both taking into account the interrelationships among those market
contingencies and predicting the specific configuration of contingencies
that makes each FP type maximally effective. By identifying the custom-
ers’ interrelated preferences for customization and responsiveness that
make each FP type most effective in improving a supplier’s sales revenue,
our propositions represent a step in the direction indicated by van Hoek
(2001) and complement prior typological-theorizing efforts focused on
the operational-performance outcomes of FP (Forza et al., 2008). Our

typological theory also contributes to a richer and, at the same time,
more nuanced understanding of the linkage between FP and mass cus-
tomization (MC), which adds to the still-limited body of research advo-
cating a contingency view of the effectiveness of MC enablers. On a more
general level, this chapter adds to the research stream on coordinating
marketing and operations decisions in the context of MC, which has so
far taken a rather narrow view of FP, one in which FP application is cir-
cumscribed to the domain of forecast-driven PDAs.
In ensuing sections, we begin with briefly reviewing prior research
findings on FP antecedents and consequences to elaborate on the motiva-
tions of this study. Subsequently, building on Bucklin’s (1965) work on
the combined operation of the principle of postponement with its oppo-
site—the principle of speculation—we propose a broader view of the
uncertainty reduction potential of FP. Successively, we draw upon
Duncan’s (1972) work on the sources of environmental uncertainty to
connect the uncertainty reduction potential of different FP types with
customers’ interrelated preferences for customization and responsiveness
and, hence, with suppliers’ sales performance. Subsequently, our typo-
logical theory is combined with prior research on the classification of MC
strategies to link different FP types to different MC strategies. Finally, the
theoretical contributions of our study, as well as its limitations, possible
extensions and practical implications, are discussed.
2 Literature Review
Prior research has mainly focused on the application of FP to a forecast-
driven PDA (Forza et al., 2008). If such an activity is postponed until
customer order receipt—an instance of what Forza et al. (2008, p. 1070)
called “from forecast to order driven FP”—then the supplier’s uncertainty
about the mix of PDA outcomes that the market will demand is elimi-
nated (Bucklin, 1965; Zinn & Bowersox, 1988). If, instead, the PDA is
deferred to a point in time closer to, but still before, customer order
entry—an instance of “remaining forecast driven FP” according to Forza
et al.’s (2008, p. 1071) terminology—then the supplier’s demand mix
uncertainty is reduced but not eliminated (Alderson, 1950; Whang &

Lee, 1998). In both cases, less safety stock is needed to guarantee the
same customer service level (Zinn, 1990; Aviv & Federgruen, 2001). The
consequent reduction in inventory-holding costs (Forza et al., 2008) is
the typical justification offered by the extant literature for the adoption of
FP (Set & Panigrahi, 2015). Undeniably, FP may reduce other costs, not
related to demand mix uncertainty, such as transportation costs (e.g.,
Zinn & Bowersox, 1988), custom tariffs (Choi et al., 2012) or cycle stock
costs (Van Kampen & Van Donk, 2014), but these benefits are less gen-
eral and “must be analyzed on a case by case basis” (Lee & Billington,
1994, p. 115). At any rate, for many years the focus of FP research has
been on the cost advantages of FP for a monopolistic supplier (Cavusoglu
et al., 2012). This does not mean that revenue implications have been
ignored. On the contrary, a loss of sales because the postponed PDA adds
to the work content of the order fulfillment process, thus lengthening
delivery lead-time, was mentioned as a possible effect of FP—meant as
from-forecast-to-order-driven FP—as early as in Zinn and Bowersox
(1988). However, a major limitation of early research, as far as FP effects
on sales revenue are concerned, is its implicitly assuming that a product’s
price is exogenous to FP application (Wong & Eyers, 2011; Cavusoglu
et al., 2012).
More recently, FP research has incorporated a supply chain perspective
(Zinn, 2019) and has developed a more sophisticated view of FP benefits
by analyzing the case of competitive markets (e.g., Anand & Girotra,
2007), by examining the benefits of FP in terms of enhanced MC capa-
bility (e.g., Liu et al., 2010), mitigation of supply risk—besides the tradi-
tionally considered demand risk—(e.g., Carbonara & Pellegrino, 2018),
and improved environmental performance (e.g., Budiman & Rau, 2019),
and by assuming that price, as well as the number of product variants
offered in the market, are influenced by FP application (e.g., Wong &
Eyers, 2011). More specifically, with reference to the last-mentioned
development, prior research has found that from-forecast-to-order-driven
FP permits to increase the number of product variants, thus minimizing
customers’ dissatisfaction in not having their ideal products (Wong &
Eyers, 2011).
Not unlike the consequences of applying FP to a forecast-driven PDA,

so have its antecedents received much attention in literature. These latter
are factors that drive or enable the application of FP by respectively ampli-
fying its benefits or mitigating its costs. For many years, the inquiry of FP
antecedents has focused on demand characteristics, such as the uncer-
tainty (e.g., Zinn & Bowersox, 1988) and the substitutability (e.g., Zinn,
1990; Aviv & Federgruen, 2001) of the market demands for the different
product variants; product factors, such as the unit value (e.g., Zinn &
Bowersox, 1988) and the degree of modularity (e.g., Lee & Tang, 1997)
of the considered product; and production process characteristics, such as
the capital intensity of (e.g., Pagh & Cooper, 1998) and the excess capac-
ity at (e.g., Gupta & Benjaafar, 2004) the considered PDA. More recently,
greater attention has been paid to the organizational solutions that facili-
tate FP, such as the use of lateral relations (Trentin & Forza, 2010) and
time-fencing (Trentin et al., 2011) in the production planning process,
and to inter-organizational factors, such as supply contract restrictions
(Krajewski et al., 2005) and mix and volume flexibilities of the suppliers
of raw materials and purchase components (Saghiri & Barnes, 2016).
Going back to the demand characteristics that give impulse to FP
application—the antecedents that are more relevant to the present
study—it is generally accepted in literature that FP implementation is
driven by customer need heterogeneity, as reflected by the number of pre-
specified product variants that a supplier has to offer (van Hoek et al.,
1998; Skipworth & Harrison, 2004; Choi et al., 2012; Zinn, 2019), by
the need for quick response to customers’ orders (van Hoek et al., 1998;
Skipworth & Harrison, 2004; Choi et al., 2012) and by the uncertainty
(van Hoek et al., 1998; Skipworth & Harrison, 2004; Zinn, 2019) and
the substitutability (Zinn, 2019) of the market demands for the different
product variants. These market contingencies dictate that the postponed
PDA is performed to forecast or, at most, immediately after the receipt of
a customer order in “a short time period” (Harrison & Skipworth, 2008,
p. 173) and amplify, for a given customer service level, the safety stock
savings produced by the deferment of the PDA (e.g., Zinn, 1990; Aviv &
Federgruen, 2001; Varas et al., 2018).
In summary, the dominant view is one in which FP reduces a supplier’s
demand mix uncertainty whenever customers value product choice but
are willing to sacrifice the possibility to demand an out-of-range solution

in exchange for quick response. Given this dominant view, it comes as no
surprise that van Hoek (2001) did not see any room for FP application
when customers value customization at the design stage more than
responsiveness. When ad hoc engineering is contemplated, the produc-
tion process—including any PDAs—must be performed to order—as
long as the typical constraint “engineering before production” (Rudberg
& Wikner, 2004, p. 448) applies—and demand mix uncertainty is thus
resolved even before applying FP.
The mechanism of demand mix uncertainty reduction continues to
play a role in order-driven production environments only when FP is
combined with the downstream relocation of the decoupling point (e.g.,
Swaminathan & Tayur, 1998, 1999), where the latter is defined as the
stock point from which customers are to be supplied (Hoekstra & Romme,
1992; Mason-Jones & Towill, 1999). This downstream relocation short-
ens delivery lead-time by reducing the order-driven portion of the produc-
tion process but, per se, could increase inventory-holding costs prohibitively
due to the large number of items that should be kept in stock at the decou-
pling point (Caux et al., 2006). Instead, if this downstream relocation is
combined with FP, then the number of stock-keeping units at the decou-
pling point is reduced and this alleviates the increase in inventory-holding
costs (Su et al., 2010) or may even improve, under very specific assump-
tions, cost performance (cf. Lee, 1996; Su et al., 2010).
Yet, if FP is applied to an order-driven PDA without simultaneously
relocating the decoupling point downstream, there is no way the mecha-
nism of demand mix uncertainty reduction can come into play (Forza
et al., 2008). Nonetheless, applications of FP in contexts wherein cus-
tomers were willing to sacrifice responsiveness in exchange for pure cus-
tomization and FP was not combined with the downstream relocation of
the decoupling point are documented in literature, for example, in the
telecommunication equipment industry (Hoyt & Lopez-Tello, 2001).
Furthermore, there are order-driven production environments, such as in
the shipbuilding, construction and aerospace sectors, where keeping a
safety stock of a semifinished product is virtually impossible (cf. Meredith
& Akinc, 2007). How FP creates value for a supplier in such contexts is
a question that, unfortunately, has drawn little attention from research-
ers, as already observed by Forza et al. (2008).
3 Form Postponement and Uncertainty

Reduction: A Broader Perspective
To conceptually investigate the benefits of applying FP to an order-driven
PDA, we build on Bucklin’s (1965) observation that uncertainty is pro-
gressively shifted from a supplier to its customers as a growing portion of
the supplier’s production process becomes order-driven: As this happens,
delivery lead-time lengthens and, hence, customers must anticipate their
needs over a longer forecast window. Since “forecasts are more wrong the
further out they go” (Mather, 1986, p. 95), the customer’s decision on
what output of a PDA will maximize his/her utility over the product’s
lifespan increases. The supplier can reduce this uncertainty—hereafter
referred to as customer’s output utility uncertainty—by deferring the
order-driven PDA to a point in time closer to product delivery—an
instance of what Forza et al. (2008, p. 1071) called “remaining order
driven FP”. This uncertainty reduction potential of FP materializes if the
supplier allows the customer to place a partially specified order and then
to specify the output of the PDA just before its execution, according to
Wikner and Rudberg’s (2005) concept of customer order decoupling
zone. Under this reasonable assumption, the customer’s input about the
PDA is required at a later point, which shortens the customer’s forecast
window and, hence, reduces his/her output utility uncertainty.
Notably, output utility uncertainty is reduced by remaining-order-
driven FP, but not eliminated. Unless a product is consumed immediately
after its purchase or customers are unaware of the possibility that their
preferences change during the product’s lifespan, elimination of output
utility uncertainty requires two conditions: First, the PDA must be
deferred until after product delivery and, second, the customer must be
enabled to perform the PDA on demand during the product’s lifespan,
according to Ng et al.’s (2015, p. 86) concept of “customer postpone-
ment”. This is well illustrated by Brown et al.’s (2000, p. 65) study of
“product postponement” at Xilinx, an integrated circuit manufacturer
that designed its products to be (re)programmable by customers using
software even after the device is installed. Notably, the term “product
postponement” emphasizes the fact that customers are provided an
“incomplete product” (Ng et al., 2015, p. 79), while the term “customer
postponement” stresses the point that customization is eventually per-

formed by customers. We further distinguish this type of FP into two
categories, depending on whether the PDA that is ultimately transferred
to the customer was previously performed by the supplier on a to-order
or a to-forecst basis. In the latter case (referred to as “from-forecast-
driven-to-customer-performed FP” in the following), also the supplier’s
demand mix uncertainty is eliminated, while in the former case (hereafter
indicated as “from-order-driven-to-customer-performed FP”) only the
customer’s output utility uncertainty is eliminated, as the supplier’s
demand mix uncertainty is resolved even before applying FP.
The above discussion complements the existing literature on the man-
agement of uncertainty through FP and outlines a broader picture of the
uncertainty reduction potential of FP. This picture is summarized in
Table 1, which builds on the mutually exclusive and collectively exhaus-
tive types of FP defined by Forza et al. (2008).
Notably, Bucklin’s (1965) point that FP shifts uncertainty away from
the supplier to the customer only applies to from-forecast-to-order-driven
Table 1 Form postponement (FP) types and uncertainty reduction

Who’s uncertainty concerning what
The supplier’s demand The customer’s output
mix uncertainty utility uncertainty
relative to the PDA to relative to the PDA to
FP type applied to a PDA which FP is applied which FP is applied
Remaining-forecast-driven FPa Reduced but not Unaltered
eliminated
From-forecast-to-order-driven Eliminated Increased
FPa
Remaining-order-driven FPa Nonexistent Reduced but not
eliminated
From-order-driven-to- Nonexistent Eliminated
customer-performed FPa
From-forecast-driven-to- Eliminated Eliminated
customer-performed FP
(= from-forecast-to-order-
driven FP PLUS_SPI from-
order-driven-to-customer-
performed FP)
a
Forza et al. (2008)
FP, since this type of FP lengthens delivery lead-time. As a matter of fact,

Bucklin (1965) had restricted Alderson’s (1950) ideaof postponing
changes in product identity along a manufacturing and distribution pro-
cess to a narrower principle, one that advocates that a forecast-driven
PDA be deferred until after a customer order is received. If we exclude
this type of FP, however, FP never shifts uncertainty forward to the cus-
tomer and three of the remaining four FP types even reduce/eliminate
uncertainty on the customer’s side.
4 Uncertainty Sources and Customers’

Interrelated Preferences
for Customization and Responsiveness
Once established that each FP type brings about unique benefits in terms
of uncertainty reduction, the question of which demand characteristics
make these unique benefits most attractive naturally arises. In addressing
this question, we focus on sales revenue as the outcome variable of inter-
est and on customers’ interrelated preferences for customization and
responsiveness as the contingencies that predict the effectiveness of each
FP type in improving sales revenue.
Our literature review has shown that prior studies on the performance
outcomes of FP have typically modeled customers’ expectations for prod-
uct customization in terms of choice, defined as the cardinality of a finite
set of pre-specified product solutions from which customers can choose.1
If customers expect quick response and, accordingly, those product vari-
ants are made to stock, choice becomes a source of supplier’s demand mix
uncertainty. Instead, if production is order-driven, demand mix uncer-
tainty is eliminated and shifted to customers in the form of increased
output utility uncertainty. However, unless a product is consumed imme-
diately, output utility uncertainty exists even when delivery lead-time is
close to zero, because customers must in any case forecast their needs over
1
This point is consistent with Wong and Lesmono’s (2013, p. 105) prior and more general observa-
tion that “most existing studies […] tend to associate the level of customization with the number
of product variants”.
the product’s lifespan. Thus, choice is always a source of customer’s out-

put utility uncertainty, unless the product is consumed immediately,
while choice may or may not be a source of supplier’s demand mix uncer-
tainty, depending on whether the product variants are created to forecast
or to order.
Seen through the lens of Duncan’s (1972) work on the environmental
sources of uncertainty, choice corresponds to the “complexity” driver,
which captures the number of diverse factors that a decision maker per-
ceives as being important in decision-making (Duncan, 1972). Customers’
expectations for customization, however, can go beyond choice (e.g.,
Wong & Lesmono, 2013) and can increase uncertainty through dyna-
mism, too, as we will argue in the following. Notably, Duncan (1972)
distinguished two types of dynamism: the change in the number of the
relevant factors, hereafter referred to as “dynamism (new factors)”, and
the change in the values of the relevant factors, henceforth denoted as
“dynamism (given factors)”.
A dynamic source of both supplier’s demand mix uncertainty and cus-
tomer’s output utility uncertainty is represented by customers’ expecta-
tions for adaptability. This is defined as the possibility to demand and
obtain an ad hoc solution whenever a customer’s idiosyncratic needs are
not fully met by any of a supplier’s pre-specified solutions. Adaptability
would make a supplier’s demand mix uncertainty so large that it must be
resolved by producing to order. Yet, order-driven production has the
drawback of impairing delivery speed because of a fundamental trade-off
studied and described by many authors (cf. Akinc & Meredith, 2015).
Thus, customers requiring adaptability must be willing to sacrifice
responsiveness. Adaptability also increases a customer’s output utility
uncertainty, because information regarding how a supplier’s capabilities
can best help a customer maximize his/her utility is distributed asym-
metrically between supplier and customer and is sticky (von Hippel,
1994). Notably, adaptability corresponds to Duncan’s (1972) dynamism
(new factors), because customers’ expectations for adaptability lead to the
definition of new product solutions over time.
Another dynamic driver of both demand mix uncertainty and output
utility uncertainty corresponds to Duncan’s (1972) dynamism (given fac-
tors). This distinct source of uncertainty is represented by change in
customers’ preferences, provided this change regards the preferences for a

given set of product solutions, as any change that leads to the request for
new solutions falls within the notion of adaptability. If customers are aware
that their preferences for a given set of solutions can change, this clearly
increases their output utility uncertainty. As a means for reducing such
uncertainty, customers may value reconfigurability, defined as the possibil-
ity to switch, on demand, among a given set of pre-specified solutions after
receiving the product. We say “may value” because this is not always the
case (e.g., customers could be willing to buy another solution as their pref-
erences change). On the supply side, if customers’ preferences for a given
set of solutions change over time, this makes the aggregate demand for each
product variant less predictable. Consequently, a supplier’s demand mix
uncertainty increases, unless those variants are made to order.
In summary, the above discussion implies that, while the dominant
view in the FP literature is that choice is all customers want in terms of
product customization, a less simplistic model should also include adapt-
ability and reconfigurability. Notably, customers’ preferences for choice,
adaptability and reconfigurability can vary across different attributes of
the same product.2 Thus, these variables must be defined at the attribute
level (Table 2), while customers’ expectations for responsiveness clearly
cannot, as they refer to the entire product. For the sake of simplicity, we
assume that each product attribute is created by a distinct transformation
activity.
5 Linking Form Postponement, Customer

Utility and Sales Performance:
A Typological Theory
To simplify our conceptual investigation of how customers’ preferences
for choice, adaptability, reconfigurability and responsiveness influence
the effectiveness of each FP type in improving a supplier’s sales revenue,
2
Following the attribute-based marketing approach, we conceptualize any product “as a bundle of
well-defined attributes” (Srinivasan et al., 1997). Each product variant is defined by a specific set of
levels (or values) of the product’s attributes.
Table 2 Variables describing customer preferences for customization

Related source
of uncertainty Uncertainty source
(Duncan, definition (Duncan,
Variable Definition 1972) 1972)
Choice The number of Complexity The number of
pre-specified diverse factors
attribute levels from identified as
which customers can being important
choose in
decision-making
Adaptability The possibility to Dynamism Change in the
demand and obtain a (new factors) number of the
new attribute level factors identified
requiring ad hoc as being
engineering important in
decision-making
Reconfigurability The possibility to Dynamism Change in the
switch, on demand, (given values of the
among a given set of factors) relevant factors
pre-specified for the decision
attribute levels after
product delivery
we assume that these four contingency variables are dichotomous:

Customers may expect either “high” or “low” choice and responsiveness,
while adaptability and reconfigurability may be required (“yes”) or not
(“no”). Under this assumption, there are 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 = 16 possible cus-
tomer utility profiles, which correspond to as many different combina-
tions of what customers appreciate. Notably, the value of each variable
must not be interpreted in isolation, but in the context of the values of
the other variables. Accordingly, a “no” value for adaptability is not to
deny that, ideally, customers would like pure customization; it only
means that, by acknowledging a trade-off between customization and
responsiveness on the supply side (e.g., Mapes et al., 1997; Åhlström &
Westbrook, 1999; Squire et al., 2006; Hallgren et al., 2011), customers
are willing to sacrifice adaptability for delivery speed. Symmetrically, a
“low” value of responsiveness is not to deny that, ideally, customers would
like quick response; it simply means that customers are willing to trade
delivery speed for a higher degree of product customization. These
Table 3 Form postponement (FP) types and customers’ preferences for choice (C),
adaptability (A), reconfigurability (RC) and responsiveness (RS)
Customer utility
profile FP type that maximizes sales revenue under the
# C A RC RS customer utility profile
1 High No No High From-forecast-to-order-driven FP
2 Low No No High Remaining-forecast-driven FP
3 High Yes No Low Remaining-order-driven FP
4 Low Yes No Low Remaining-order-driven FP (less beneficial than
under Profile 3)
5 High No No Low Remaining-order-driven FP (less beneficial than
under Profile 3)
6 Low No No Low Remaining-order-driven FP (less beneficial than
under Profile 3)
7 High Yes Yes Low From-order-driven-to-customer-performed FP
8 Low Yes Yes Low From-order-driven-to-customer-performed FP (less
beneficial than under Profile 7)
9 High No Yes Low From-order-driven-to-customer-performed FP (less
10 Low No Yes Low From-order-driven-to-customer-performed FP (less
11 High No Yes High From-forecast-driven-to-customer-performed FP
12 Low No Yes High From-forecast-driven-to-customer-performed FP (less
covariance patterns are recognized in the existing literature (cf. Wong &
Lesmono, 2013) and explain why the four profiles combining “yes”
adaptability with “high” responsiveness are omitted in Table 3. The
remaining profiles are discussed in the following, with the objective of
identifying the FP type that maximizes a supplier’s sales revenue under
each profile.
When customers do not value reconfigurability, transferring a PDA to
them (i.e., from-order/forecast-driven-to-customer-performed FP) will
reduce a supplier’s revenue, as customers will prefer competing offerings
that do not force them to perform product configuration tasks.
Consequently, for Profiles 1–6, from-order/forecast-driven-to-customer-
performed FP are dominated by the other three FP types.
If customers are also willing to sacrifice adaptability for delivery speed
(Profiles 1 and 2), a large portion of the production process, if not the
entire process, must be performed on a to-forecast basis. This means that
there is little room for applying remaining-order-driven FP. As a matter
of fact, when delivery lead-times are short, the maximum time lapse by
which an order-driven PDA can be deferred while remaining order-
driven is short. Consequently, the ideal FP type must be chosen between
remaining-forecast-driven FP and from-forecast-to-order-driven FP.
When customers expect quick response but are willing to trade on-
hand availability of end-products for higher product choice (Profile 1),
from-forecast-to-order-driven FP dominates remaining-forecast-driven
FP (cf, Harrison & Skipworth, 2008; Wong & Eyers, 2011). As a matter
of fact, when the number of attribute levels requested by the market is
large, continuing to create the corresponding product features to forecast
leads to excess inventory without ensuring the expected level of customer
service (Holweg & Pil, 2001; Salvador et al., 2007). Conversely, when
customers do not require high product choice (Profile 2), the ideal FP
type is remaining-forecast-driven FP, as it preserves on-hand availability
of end-products.
Suppose now that customers accept low responsiveness in exchange for
adaptability (Profiles 3 and 4). In this case, given the constraint “engi-
neering before production”, the PDA must be performed to order. This
leaves remaining-order-driven FP as the only option (recall that we are
still discussing the case in which customers do not wish reconfigurabil-
ity). Remaining-order-driven FP improves sales revenue by allowing cus-
tomers to purchase a partially specified product and then to define the
output of the PDA just before its execution. This may be essential to win
orders when customers are unable to fully specify, at the time of purchase,
the products they need (e.g., Hoyt & Lopez-Tello, 2001). Notably, the
uncertainty reduction benefits of remaining-order-driven are less appeal-
ing when choice is “low” (Profile 4) rather than “high” (Profile 3), because
adding choice to adaptability further increases customers’ output utility
uncertainty (cf. previous section). Likewise, this FP type is less appealing
when customers are willing to accept low responsiveness even without
expecting adaptability (Profiles 5 and 6), as in this case their output util-
ity uncertainty is driven only by choice (cf. previous section) and, there-
fore, is lower.
Now, let us go back to the case in which customers trade responsive-
ness for adaptability and let us assume that they also value reconfigurabil-
ity as a means to reduce their output utility uncertainty (Profiles 7–8).
Meeting customers’ expectation for reconfigurability necessitates that the
PDA be passed on to the customers themselves. However, given the

simultaneous request for adaptability, reconfigurability here involves a set
of attribute levels that is at least in part customer-specific. To accommo-
date for ad hoc engineering, the PDA to be transferred to customers must
clearly be order-driven. Thus, the ideal FP type is from-order-driven-to-
customer-performed FP. Not unlike remaining-order-driven FP, this FP
type is less appealing when choice is “low” (Profile 8) rather than “high”
(Profile 7), because adding choice to adaptability further increases cus-
tomers’ output utility uncertainty (cf. previous section). Similarly, when
customer do not require adaptability and their output utility uncertainty
is driven only by choice (Profiles 9 and 10), the uncertainty reduction
benefits of this FP type are less appealing, as output utility uncertainty
is lower.
Finally, suppose customers value reconfigurability but are willing to
sacrifice adaptability for delivery speed (Profiles 11 and 12). In this case,
customers are satisfied with the possibility of switching—on demand
after product delivery—among a set of attribute levels that is fully pre-
specified. As the PDA being transferred to customers does not require ad
hoc engineering, it can be forecast-driven. More precisely, it must be
forecast-driven if customers’ expectations for quick delivery are to be
fully met. Thus, the ideal FP type is from-forecast-driven-to-customer-
performed FP, which eliminates both the supplier’s demand mix uncer-
tainty and the customer’s output utility uncertainty. Notably, the
uncertainty reduction benefits of this FP type are more appealing when
choice is “high” (Profile 11) rather than “low” (Profile 12), because choice
increases both the supplier’s demand mix uncertainty and the customer’s
output utility uncertainty (cf. previous section).
The above arguments allow us to predict which customer utility profile
makes each FP type most effective in improving a supplier’s sales revenue.
This typological theory linking FP type, customer utility and sales perfor-
mance is formalized by the following five propositions, which are graphi-
cally illustrated in Fig. 1.
Proposition 1. Remaining-forecast-driven FP is most effective in increasing

a supplier’s sales revenue when customers demand high responsiveness but
accept low choice and do not require adaptability or reconfigurability.
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foot, and chamber men,” independently of the noble maidens who
tended her, and who seem to have been equally served by three
“valets de main, de pied, et de chambre.”
But short-lived was the glory; no, I will not say that, let me rather
remark that short-lived was the worldly splendor of the chivalrous
my-lady countess. She had rendered all the service she could, when
she fell wounded before Paris, and was basely abandoned for a
while by her own party. She was rescued, ultimately, by D’Alençon,
but only to be more disgracefully abandoned on the one side, and
evilly treated on the other. When as a bleeding captive she was
rudely dragged from the field at Compiègne; church, court, and
chivalry, ignobly abandoned the poor and brave girl who had served
all three in turn. By all three she was now as fiercely persecuted; and
it may safely be said, that if the English were glad to burn her as a
witch, to account for the defeat of the English and their allies, the
French were equally eager to furnish testimony against her.
Her indecision and vacillation after falling into the hands of her
enemies, would seem to show that apart from the promptings of
those who had guided her, she was but an ordinary personage. She,
however, never lost heart, and her natural wit did not abandon her.
“Was St. Michael naked when he appeared to you?” was a question
asked by one of the examining commissioners. To which Jeanne
replied, “Do you think heaven has not wherewith to dress him?” “Had
he any hair on his head?” was the next sensible question. Jeanne
answered it by another query, “Have the goodness to tell me,” said
she, “why Michael’s head should have been shaved?” It was easy, of
course, to convict a prejudged and predoomed person, of desertion
of her parents, of leading a vagabond and disreputable life, of
sorcery, and finally, of heresy. She was entrapped into answers
which tended to prove her culpability; but disregarding at last the
complicated web woven tightly around her, and aware that nothing
could save her, the heart of the knightly maiden beat firmly again,
and as a summary reply to all questions, she briefly and emphatically
declared: “All that I have done, all that I do, I have done well, and do
well to do it.” In her own words, “Tout ce que j’ai fait, tout ce que je
fais, j’ai bien fait, et fais bien de le faire;” and it was a simply-
dignified resume in presence of high-born ecclesiastics, who did not
scruple to give the lie to each other like common ploughmen.
She was sentenced to death, and suffered the penalty, as being
guilty of infamy, socially, morally, religiously, and politically. Not a
finger was stretched to save her who had saved so many. Her
murder is an indelible stain on two nations and one church; not the
less so that the two nations unite in honoring her memory, and that
the church has pronounced her innocent. Never did gallant
champion meet with such base ingratitude from the party raised by
her means from abject slavery to triumph; never was noble enemy
so ignobly treated by a foe with whom, to acknowledge and admire
valor, is next to the practice of it; and never was staff selected by the
church for its support, so readily broken and thrown into the fire
when it had served its purpose. All the sorrow in the world can not
wash out these terrible facts, but it is fitting that this sorrow should
always accompany our admiration. And so, honored be the memory
of the young girl of Orleans!
After all, it is a question whether our sympathies be not thrown away
when we affect to feel for Jeanne Darc. M. Delepierre, the Belgian
Secretary of Legation, has printed, for private circulation, his “Doute
Historique.” This work consists chiefly of official documents, showing
that the “Maid” never suffered at all, but that some criminal having
been executed in her place, she survived to be a pensioner of the
government, a married lady, and the mother of a family! The work in
which these documents are produced, is not to be easily procured,
but they who have any curiosity in the matter will find the subject
largely treated in the Athenæum. This “Historical Doubt” brings us so
closely in connection with romance, that we, perhaps, can not do
better in illustrating our subject, than turn to a purely romantic
subject, and see of what metal the champions of Christendom were
made, with respect to chivalry.
THE CHAMPIONS OF CHRISTENDOM
GENERALLY
AND HE OF ENGLAND IN PARTICULAR.
“Are these things true?
Thousands are getting at them in the streets.”
Sejanus His Fall.
I can hardly express the delight I feel as a biographer in the

present instance, in the very welcome fact that no one knows
anything about the parentage of St. George. If there had been a
genealogical tree of the great champion’s race, the odds, are that I
should have got bewildered among the branches. As there is only
much conjecture with a liberal allowance of assertion, the task is
doubly easy, particularly as the matter itself is of the very smallest
importance.
The first proof that our national patron ever existed at all, according
to Mr. Alban Butler, is that the Greeks reverenced him by the name
of “the Great Martyr.” Further proof of a somewhat similar quality, is
adduced in the circumstance that in Greece and in various parts of
the Levant, there are or were dozens of churches erected in honor of
the chivalrous saint; that Georgia took the holy knight for its especial
patron; and that St. George, in full panoply, won innumerable battles
for the Christians, by leading forward the reserves when the
vanguard had been repulsed by the infidels, and the Christian
generals were of themselves too indolent, sick, or incompetent, to do
what they expected St. George to do for them.
From the East, veneration for this name, and some imaginary person
who once bore it, extended itself throughout the West. It is a curious
fact, that long before England placed herself under the shield of this
religious soldier, France had made selection of him, at least as a
useful adjutant or aide-de-camp to St. Denis. Indeed, our saint was
at one time nearly monopolized by France. St. Clotilde, the wife of
the first Christian king of France, raised many altars in his honor—a
fact which has not been forgotten in the decorations and illustrative
adornments of that splendid church which has just been completed
in the Faubourg St. Germain, and which is at once the pride and
glory of Paris. That city once possessed relics which were said to be
those of St. George; but of their whereabouts, no man now knows
anything. We do, however, know that the Normans brought over the
name of the saint with them, as that of one in whose arm of power
they trusted, whether in the lists or in battle. In this respect we, as
Saxons, if we choose to consider ourselves as such, have no
particular reason to be grateful to the saint, for his presence among
us is a symbol of national defeat if not of national humiliation. Not
above six centuries have, however, elapsed since the great council
of Oxford appointed his feast to be kept as a holyday of lesser rank
throughout England; and it is about five hundred years since Edward
III. established the Order of the Garter, under the patronage of this
saint. This order is far more ancient than that of St. Michael,
instituted by Louis XI.; of the Golden Fleece, invented by that ‘good’
Duke Philip of Burgundy, who fleeced all who were luckless enough
to come within reach of his ducal shears; and of the Scottish Order
of St. Andrew, which is nearly two centuries younger than that of St.
George. Venice, Genoa, and Germany, have also instituted orders of
chivalry in honor of this unknown cavalier.
These honors, however, and a very general devotion prove nothing
touching his birth, parentage, and education. Indeed, it is probably
because nothing is known of either, that his more serious
biographers begin with his decease, and write his history, which, like
one of Zschokke’s tales, might be inscribed “Alles Verkerht.” They tell
us that he suffered under Diocletian, in Nicomedia, and on the 23d of
April. We are further informed that he was a Cappadocian—a
descendant of those savagely servile people, who once told the
Romans that they would neither accept liberty at the hands of Rome,
nor tolerate it of their own accord. He was, it is said, of noble birth,
and after the death of his father, resided with his mother in Palestine,
on an estate which finally became his own. The young squire was a
handsome and stalwart youth, and, like many of that profession, fond
of a military life. His promotion must have been pretty rapid, for we
find him, according to tradition, a tribune or colonel in the army at a
very early age, and a man of much higher rank before he
prematurely died. His ideas of discipline were good, for when the
pagan emperor persecuted the Christians, George of Cappadocia
resigned his commission and appointments, and not till then, when
he was a private man, did he stoutly remonstrate with his imperial
ex-commander-in-chief against that sovereign’s bloody edicts and
fiercer cruelty against the Christians. This righteous boldness was
barbarously avenged; and on the day after the remonstrance the
gallant soldier lost his head. Some authors add to this account that
he was the “illustrious young man” who tore down the anti-Christian
edicts, when they were first posted up in Nicomedia, a conjecture
which, by the hagiographers is called “plausible,” but which has no
shadow of proof to give warrant for its substantiality.
The reason why all knights and soldiers generally have had
confidence in St. George, is founded, we are told, on the facts of his
reappearance on earth at various periods, and particularly at the
great siege of Antioch, in the times of the crusades. The Christians
had been well nigh as thoroughly beaten as the Russians at Silistria.
They were at the utmost extremity, when a squadron was seen
rushing down from a mountain defile, with three knights at its head,
in brilliant panoply and snow-white scarfs. “Behold,” cried Bishop
Adhemar, “the heavenly succor which was promised to you! Heaven
declares for the Christians. The holy martyrs, George, Demetrius,
and Theodore, come to fight for you.” The effect was electrical. The
Christian army rushed to victory, with the shout, “It is the will of God!”
and the effect of the opportune appearance of the three chiefs and
their squadron, who laid right lustily on the Saracens, was decisive of
one of the most glorious, yet only temporarily productive of triumphs.
When Richard I. was on his expedition against enemies of the same
race, he too was relieved from great straits by a vision of St. George.
The army, indeed, did not see the glorious and inspiring sight, but
the king affirmed that he did, which, in those credulous times was
quite as well. In these later days men are less credulous, or saints
are more cautious. Thus the Muscovites assaulted Kars under the
idea that St. Sergius was with them; at all events, Pacha Williams, a
good cause, and sinewy arms, were stronger than the Muscovite
idea and St. Sergius to boot.
Such, then, is the hagiography of our martial saint. Gibbon has
sketched his life in another point of view—business-like, if not
matter-of-fact. The terrible historian sets down our great patron as
having been born in a fuller’s shop in Cilicia, educated (perhaps) in
Cappadocia, and as having so won promotion, when a young man,
from his patrons, by the skilful exercise of his profession as a
parasite, as to procure, through their influence, “a lucrative
commission or contract to supply the army with bacon!” In this
commissariat employment he is said to have exercised fraud and
corruption, by which may be meant that he sent to the army bacon
as rusty as an old cuirass, and charged a high price for a worthless
article. In these times, when the name and character of St. George
are established, it is to be hoped that Christian purveyors for
Christian armies do not, in reverencing George the Saint, imitate the
practices alleged against him as George the Contractor. It would be
hard, indeed, if a modern contractor who sent foul hay to the cavalry,
uneatable food to the army generally, or poisonous potted-meat to
the navy, could shield himself under the name and example of St.
George. Charges as heavy are alleged against him by Gibbon, who
adds that the malversations of the pious rogue “were so notorious,
that George was compelled to escape from the pursuit of justice.” If
he saved his fortune, it is allowed that he made shipwreck of his
honor; and he certainly did not improve his reputation if, as is
alleged, he turned Arian. The career of our patron saint, as
described by Gibbon, is startling. That writer speaks of the splendid
library subsequently collected by George, but he hints that the
volumes on history, rhetoric, philosophy, and theology, were perhaps
as much proof of ostentation as of love for learning. That George
was raised by the intrigues of a faction to the pastoral throne of
Athanasius, in Alexandria, does not surprise us. Bishops were very
irregularly elected in those early days, when men were sometimes
summarily made teachers who needed instruction themselves; as is
the case in some enlightened districts at present. George displayed
an imperial pomp in his archiepiscopal character, “but he still
betrayed those vices of his base and servile extraction,” yet was so
impartial that he oppressed and plundered all parties alike. “The
merchants of Alexandria,” says the historian of the “Decline and
Fall,” “were impoverished by the unjust and almost universal
monopoly which he acquired of nitre, salt, paper, funerals, &c., and
the spiritual father of a great people condescended to practise the
vile and pernicious arts of an informer. He seems to have had as
sharp an eye after the profit to be derived from burials, as a certain
archdeacon, who thinks intramural burial of the dead a very sanitary
measure for the living, and particularly profitable to the clergy. Thus
the example of St. George would seem to influence very “venerable”
as well as very “martial” gentlemen. The Cappadocian most
especially disgusted the Alexandrians by levying a house tax, of his
own motion, and as he pillaged the pagan temples as well, all parties
rose at length against the common oppressor and “under the reign of
Constantine he was expelled by the fury and justice of the people.”
He was restored only again to fall. The accession of Julian brought
destruction upon the archbishop and many of his friends, who, after
an imprisonment of three weeks, were dragged from their dungeons
by a wild and cruel populace, and murdered in the streets. The
bodies were paraded in triumph upon camels (as that of Condé was
by his Catholic opponents, after the battle of Jarnac, on an ass), and
they were ultimately cast into the sea. This last measure was
adopted in order that, if the sufferers were to be accounted as
martyrs, there should at least be no relics of them for men to
worship. Gibbon thus concludes: “The fears of the Pagans were just,
and their precautions ineffectual. The meritorious death of the
archbishop obliterated the memory of his life. The rival of Athanasius
was dear and sacred to the Arians, and the seeming conversion of
those sectaries introduced his worship into the bosom of the Catholic
church. The odious stranger, disguising every circumstance of time
and place, assumed the rank of a martyr, a saint, and a Christian
hero; and the infamous George of Cappadocia has been
transformed into the famous St. George of England, the patron of
arms, of chivalry, and of the garter.”
The romancers have treated St. George and his knightly
confraternity after their own manner. As a sample of what reading
our ancestors were delighted with, especially those who loved
chivalric themes, I know nothing better than “The Famous History of
the Seven Champions of Christendom, St. George of England, St.
Denis of France, St. James of Spain, St. Anthony of Italy, St. Andrew
of Scotland, St. Patrick of Ireland, and St. David of Wales. Shewing
their honourable battles by sea and land. Their tilts, justs,
tournaments for ladies; their combats with gyants, monsters, and
dragons; their adventures in foreign nations; their enchantments in
the Holy Land; their knighthoods, prowess, and chivalry, in Europe,
Africa, and Asia; with their victories against the enemies of Christ;
also the true manner and places of their deaths, being seven
tragedies, and how they came to be called the Seven Saints of
Christendom.” The courteous author or publisher of the veracious
details, prefaces them with a brief address “to all courteous readers,”
to whom “Richard Johnson wisheth increase of virtuous knowledge.”
“Be not,” he says, “like the chattering cranes, nor Momus’s mates
that carp at everything. What the simple say, I care not. What the
spiteful say, I pass not; only the censure of the conceited,” by which
good Richard means the learned, “I stand unto; that is the mark I aim
at,”—an address, it may be observed, which smacks of the Malaprop
school; but which seemed more natural to our ancestors than it does
to us.
For these readers Richard Johnson presents a very highly-spiced
fare. He brings our patron saint into the world by a Cæsarean
operation performed by a witch, who stole him from his unconscious
mother, and reared him up in a cave, whence the young knight
ultimately escaped with the other champions whom the witch, now
slain, had kept imprisoned. The champions, it may be observed,
travel with a celerity that mocks the “Express,” and rivals the
despatch of the Electric Telegraph. They are scarcely departed from
the seven paths which led from the brazen pillar, each in search of
adventures, when they are all “in the thick of it,” almost at the
antipodes. A breath takes St. George from Coventry, his recovered
home, after leaving the witch, to Egypt. At the latter place he slays
that terrible dragon, which some think to imply the Arian overcoming
the Athanasian, and rescues the Princess Sabra, in whose very
liberal love we can hardly trace a symbol of the Church, although her
antipathies are sufficiently strong to remind one of the odium
theologicum. George goes on performing stupendous feats, and
getting no thanks, until he undertakes to slay a couple of lions for the
Soldan of Persia, and gets clapped into prison, during seven years,
for his pains. The biographer I suspect, shut the knight up so long, in
order to have an excuse to begin episodically with the life of St.
Denis.
The mystic number seven enters into all the principal divisions of the
story. Thus, St. Denis having wandered into Thessaly was reduced
to such straits as to live upon mulberries; and these so disagreed
with him that he became suddenly transformed into a hart; a very
illogical sequence indeed. But the mulberry tree was, in fact,
Eglantius the King’s daughter, metamorphosed for her pride. Seven
years he thus remained; at the end of which time, his horse, wise as
any regularly-ordained physician, administered to him a decoction of
roses which brought about the transformation of both his master and
his master’s mistress into their “humane shapes.” That they went to
court sworn lovers may be taken as a matter of course. There they
are left, in order to afford the author an opportunity of showing how
St. James, having most unorthodoxically fallen in love with a Jewish
maiden, was seven years dumb, in consequence. St. James,
however, is a patient and persevering lover. If I had an ill-will against
any one I would counsel him to read this very long-winded history,
but being at peace with all mankind, I advise my readers to be
content with learning that the apostolic champion and the young
Jewess are ultimately united, and fly to Seville, where they reside in
furnished lodgings, and lead a happy life;—while the author tells of
what befell to the doughty St. Anthony.
This notable Italian is a great hand at subduing giants and ladies.
We have a surfeit of combats and destruction, and love-making and
speechifying, in this champion’s life; and when we are compelled to
leave him travelling about with a Thracian lady, who accompanies
him, in a theatrical male dress, and looks in it like the Duchess—at
least, like Miss Farebrother, in the dashing white sergeant of the
Forty Thieves—we shake our head at St. Anthony and think how
very unlike he is to his namesake in the etching by Callot, where the
fairest of sirens could not squeeze a sigh from the anchorite’s
wrinkled heart.
While they are travelling about in the rather disreputable fashion
above alluded to, we come across St. Andrew of Scotland, who has
greater variety of adventure than any other of the champions. With
every hour there is a fresh incident. Now he is battling with spirits,
now struggling with human foes, and anon mixed up, unfavorably,
with beasts. At the end of all the frays, there is—we need hardly say
it—a lady. The bonny Scot was not likely to be behind his fellow-
champions in this respect. Nay, St. Andrew has six of them, who had
been swans, and are now natural singing lasses. What sort of a
blade St. Andrew was may be guessed by the “fact,” that when he
departed from the royal court, to which he had conducted the half
dozen ladies, they all eloped in a body, after him. There never was
so dashing a hero dreamed of by romance—though a rhymer has
dashed off his equal in wooing, and Burns’s “Finlay” is the only one
that may stand the parallel.
When the six Thracian ladies fall into the power of “thirty bloody-
minded satyrs,” who so likely, or so happy to rescue them as jolly St.
Patrick. How he flies to the rescue, slays one satyr, puts the rest to
flight, and true as steel, in love or friendship, takes the half dozen
damsels under his arm, and swings singingly along with them in
search of the roving Scot! As for St. David, all this while, he had not
been quite so triumphant, or so tried, as his fellows. He had fallen
into bad company, and “four beautiful damsels wrapped the drousie
champion in a sheet of fine Arabian silk, and conveyed him into a
cave, placed in the middle of a garden, where they laid him on a bed,
more softer than the down of Culvers.” In this agreeable company
the Welsh champion wiled away his seven years. It was pleasant but
not proper. But if the author had not thus disposed of him, how do
you think he would ever have got back to St. George of England?
The author indeed exhibits considerable skill, for he brings St.
George and St. David together, and the first rescues the second from
ignoble thraldom, and what is worse, from the most prosy enchanter
I ever met with in history, and who is really not enchanting at all. This
done, George is off to Tripoli.
There, near there, or somewhere else, for the romances are
dreadfully careless in their topography, he falls in with his old love
Sabra, married to a Moorish King. If George is perplexed at this,
seeing that the lady had engaged to remain an unmarried maiden till
he came to wed her, he is still more so when she informs him that
she has, in all essentials, kept her word, “through the secret virtue of
a golden chain steeped in tiger’s blood, the which she wore seven
times double about her ivory neck.” St. George does not know what
to make of it, but as on subsequently encountering two lions, Sabra,
while he was despatching one, kept the other quietly with its head
resting on her lap, the knight declared himself perfectly satisfied, and
they set out upon their travels, lovingly together.
By the luckiest chance, all the wandering knights and their ladies met
at the court of a King of Greece, who is not, certainly, to be heard of
in Gillies’ or Goldsmith’s history. The scenery is now on a
magnificent scale, for there is a regal wedding on foot, and
tournaments, and the real war of Heathenism against all
Christendom. As the Champions of Christendom have as yet done
little to warrant them in assuming the appellation, one would
suppose that the time had now arrived when they were to give the
world a taste of their quality in that respect. But nothing of the sort
occurs. The seven worthies separate, each to his own country, in
order to prepare for great deeds; but none are done for the benefit of
Christianity, unless indeed we are to conclude that when George and
Sabra travelled together, and he overcame all antagonists, and she
inspired with love all beholders;—he subdued nature itself and she
ran continually into danger, from which he rescued her:—and that
when, after being condemned to the stake, the young wife gave birth
to three babes in the wood, and was at last crowned Queen of
Egypt, something is meant by way of allegory, in reference to old
church questions, and in not very clear elucidation as to how these
questions were beneficially affected by the Champions of
Christendom!
I may add that when Sabra was crowned Queen of Egypt, every one
was ordered to be merry, on pain of death! It is further to be
observed there is now much confusion, and that the confusion by no
means grows less as the story thunders on. The Champions and the
three sons of St. George are, by turns, East, West, North, and South,
either pursuing each other, or suddenly and unexpectedly
encountering, like the principal personages in a pantomime. Battles,
love-making, and shutting up cruel and reprobate magicians from the
“humane eye,” are the chief events, but to every event there are
dozens of episodes, and each episode is as confusing, dazzling, and
bewildering as the trunk from which it hangs.
St. George, however, is like a greater champion than himself; and
when he is idle and in Italy, he does precisely what Nelson did in the
same place—fall in love with a lady, and cause endless mischief in
consequence. By this time, however, Johnson begins to think, rightly,
that his readers have had enough of it, and that it is time to dispose
of his principal characters. These too, are so well disposed to help
him, that when the author kills St. Patrick, the saint burys himself! In
memory of his deeds, of which we have heard little or nothing, some
are accustomed to honor him, says Mr. Johnson—“wearing upon
their hats, each of them, a cross of red silk, in token of his many
adventures under the Christian Cross.” So that the shamrock
appears to have been a device only of later times.
St. David is as quickly despatched. This champion enters Wales to
crush the pagans there. He wears a leek in his helmet, and his
followers adopt the same fashion, in order that friend may be
distinguished from foe. The doughty saint, of course, comes
conqueror out of the battle, but he is in a heated state, gets a chill
and dies after all of a common cold. Bruce, returning safe from
exploring the Nile, to break his neck by falling down his own stairs,
hardly presents a more practical bathos than this. Why the leek
became the badge of Welshmen need not be further explained.
It is singular that in recounting the manner of the death of the next
champion, St. Denis, the romancer is less romantic than common
tradition. He tells us how the knight repaired to then pagan France;
how he was accused of being a Christian, by another knight of what
we should fancy a Christian order, St. Michael, and how the pagan
king orders St. Denis to be beheaded, in consequence. There are
wonders in the heavens, at this execution, which convert the
heathen sovereign to Christianity; but no mention is made of St.
Denis having walked to a monastery, after his head was off, and with
his head under his arm. Of this prodigy Voltaire remarked, “Ce n’est
que le premier pas qui coute,” but of that the romancer makes no
mention. St. James suffers by being shut up in his chapel in Spain,
and starved to death, by order of the Atheist king. Anthony dies
quietly in a good old age, in Italy; St. Andrew is beheaded by the
cruel pagan Scots whom, in his old age, he had visited, in order to
bring them to conversion: and St. George, who goes on, riding down
wild monsters and rescuing timid maidens, to the last—and his
inclination, was always in the direction of the maidens—ultimately
meets his death by the sting of a venomous dragon.
And now it would seem that two or three hundred years ago, authors
were very much like the actors in the Critic, who when they did get
hold of a good thing, could never give the public enough of it.
Accordingly, the biography of the Seven Champions was followed by
that of their sons. I will spare my readers the turbulent details: they
will probably be satisfied with learning that the three sons of St.
George became kings, “according as the fairy queen had prophesied
to them,” and that Sir Turpin, son of David, Sir Pedro, son of James,
Sir Orlando, son of Anthony, Sir Ewen, son of Andrew, Sir Phelim,
son of Patrick, and Sir Owen, son of David, like their sires, combated
with giants, monsters, and dragons; tilted and tournamented in honor
of the ladies, did battle in defence of Christianity, relieved the
distressed, annihilated necromancers and table-turners, in short,
accomplished all that could be expected from knights of such
prowess and chivalry.
When Richard Johnson had reached this part of his history, he gave
it to the world, awaiting the judgment of the critics, before he
published his second portion: that portion wherein he was to unfold
what nobody yet could guess at, namely, wherefore the Seven
Champions were called par excellence, the Champions of
Christendom. I am afraid that meanwhile those terrible, god-like, and
inexorable critics, had not dealt altogether gently with him. The
Punch they offered him was not made exclusively of sweets. His St.
George had been attacked, and very small reverence been
expressed for his ladies. But see how calmly and courteously—all
the more admirable that there must have been some affectation in
the matter—he turns from the censuring judges to that benevolent
personage, the gentle reader. “Thy courtesy,” he says, “must be my
buckler against the carping malice of mocking jesters, that being
worse able to do well, scoff commonly at that they can not mend;
censuring all things, doing nothing, but (monkey-like) make apish
jests at anything they do in print, and nothing pleaseth them, except
it savor of a scoffing and invective spirit. Well, what they say of me I
do not care; thy delight is my sole desire.” Well said, bold Richard
Johnson. He thought he had put down criticism as St. George had
the dragon.
I can not say, however, that good Richard Johnson treats his gentle
reader fairly. This second part of his Champions is to a reader worse
than what all the labors of Hercules were to the lusty son of
Alcmena. An historical drama at Astley’s is not half so bewildering,
and is almost as credible, and Mr. Ducrow himself when he was
rehearsing his celebrated “spectacle drama” of “St. George and the
Dragon” at old Drury—and who that ever saw him on those
occasions can possibly forget him?—achieved greater feats, or was
more utterly unlike any sane individual than St. George is, as put
upon the literary stage by Master Johnson.
One comfort in tracing the tortuosities of this chivalric romance is
that the action is rapid; but then there is so much of it, and it is so
astounding! We are first introduced to the three sons of St. George,
who are famous hunters in England, and whose mother, the lady
Sabra, “catches her death,” by going out attired like Diana, to
witness their achievements. The chivalric widower thereupon sets
out for Jerusalem, his fellow-champions accompany, and George’s
three sons, Guy, Alexander, and David, upon insinuation from their
mother’s spirit, start too in pursuit. The lads were knighted by the
king of England before they commenced their journey, which they
perform with the golden spur of chivalry attached to their heels. They
meet with the usual adventures by the way: destroying giants, and
rescuing virgins, who in these troublesome times seem to have been
allowed to travel about too much by themselves. Meanwhile, their
sire is enacting greater prodigies still, and is continually delivering his
fellow-champions from difficulties, from which they are unable to
extricate themselves. Indeed, in all circumstances, his figure is the
most prominent; and although the other half-dozen must have
rendered some service on each occasion, St. George makes no
more mention of the same than Marshal St. Arnaud, in his letters on
the victory at the Alma, does of the presence and services of the
English.
It is said that Mrs. Radcliffe, whose horrors used to delight and
distress our mothers and aunts, in their younger days, became
herself affected by the terrors which she only paints to explain away
natural circumstances. What then must have been the end of
Richard Johnson? His scene of the enchantments of the Black
Castle is quite enough to have killed the author with bewilderment.
There is a flooring in the old palace of the Prince of Orange in
Brussels, which is so inlaid with small pieces of wood, of a thousand
varieties of patterns, as to be a triumph of its kind. I was not at all
surprised, when standing on that floor, to hear that when the artist
had completed his inconceivable labor, he gave one wild gaze over
the parquet of the palace, and dropped dead of a fit of giddiness. I
am sure that Richard Johnson must have met with some such
calamity after revising this portion of his history. It is a portion in
which it is impossible for the Champions or for the readers to go to
sleep. The noise is terrific, the incidents fall like thunderbolts, the
changes roll over each other in a succession made with electric
rapidity, and when the end comes we are all the more rejoiced,
because we have comprehended nothing; but we are especially glad
to find that the knight of the Black Castle, who is the cause of all the
mischief, is overcome, flies in a state of destitution to a neighboring
wood, and being irretrievably “hard up,” stabs himself with the first
thing at hand, as ruthlessly as the lover of the “Ratcatcher’s
Daughter.”
Time, place, propriety, and a respect for contemporary history, are
amusingly violated throughout the veracious details. Nothing can
equal the confusion, nothing can be more absurd than the errors. But
great men have committed errors as grave. Shakespeare opened a
seaport in Bohemia, and Mr. Macaulay wrote of one Penn what was
only to be attributed to another. And now, have the dramatists
treated St. George better than the romancers?
The national saint was, doubtless, often introduced in the Mysteries;
but the first occasion of which I have any knowledge of his having
been introduced on the stage, was by an author named John Kirke.
John was so satisfied with his attempt that he never wrote a second
play. He allowed his fame to rest on the one in question, which is
thus described on his title-page: “The Seven Champions of
Christendome. Acted at the Cocke Pit, and at the Red Bull in St.
John’s Streete, with a general liking, And never printed till this yeare
1638. Written by J. K.—London, printed by J. Okes, and are (sic) to
be sold by James Becket, at his Shop in the Inner Temple Gate,
1638.”
John Kirke treats his subject melodramatically. In the first scene,
Calib the Witch, in a speech prefacing her declarations of a love for
foul weather and deeds, tells the audience by way of prologue, how
she had stolen the young St. George from his now defunct parent,
with the intention of making a bath for her old bones out of his young
warm blood. Love, however, had touched her, and she had brought
up “the red-lipped boy,” with some indefinite idea of making
something of him when a man.
With this disposition the old lady has some fears as to the possible
approaching term of her life; but, as she is assured by “Tarfax the
Devill” that she can not die unless she love blindly, the witch, like a
mere mortal, accounting that she loves wisely, reckons herself a
daughter of immortality, and rejoices hugely. The colloquy of this
couple is interrupted by their son Suckabud, who, out of a head just
broken by St. George, makes complaint with that comic lack of fun,
which was wont to make roar the entire inside of the Red Bull. The
young clown retires with his sire, and then enters the great St.
George, a lusty lad, with a world of inquiries touching his parentage.
Calib explains that his lady mother was anything but an honest
woman, and that his sire was just the partner to match. “Base or
noble, pray?” asks St. George. To which the witch replies:—
“Base and noble too;
Both base by thee, but noble by descent;
And thou born base, yet mayst thou write true gent:”
and it may be said, parenthetically, that many a “true gent” is by birth

equal to St. George himself.
Overcome by her affection, the witch makes a present to St. George
of the half-dozen champions of England whom she holds in chains
within her dwelling. One of them is described as “the lively, brisk,
cross-cap’ring Frenchman, Denis.” With these for slaves, Calib yields
her wand of power, and the giver is no sooner out of sight when
George invokes the shades of his parents, who not only appear and
furnish him with a corrected edition of his biography, but inform him
that he is legitimate Earl of Coventry, with all the appurtenances that
a young earl can desire.
Thereupon ensues a hubbub that must have shaken all the lamps in
the cockpit. George turns the Witch’s power against herself, and she
descends to the infernal regions, where she is punningly declared to
have gained the title of Duchess of Helvetia. The six champions are
released, and the illustrious seven companions go forth in search of
adventures, with Suckabus for a “Squire.” The father of the latter
gives him some counsel at parting, which is a parody on the advice
of Polonius to Laertes. “Lie,” says Torpax:—
“Lie to great profit, borrow, pay no debts,

Cheat and purloin, they are gaming dicers’ bets.”
“If Cottington outdo me,” says the son, “he be-whipt.” And so, after
the election of St. George as the seventh champion of Christendom,
ends one of the longest acts that Bull or Cockpit was ever asked to
witness and applaud.
The next act is briefer but far more bustling. We are in that
convenient empire of Trebizond, where everything happened which
never took place, according to the romances. The whole city is in a
state of consternation at the devastations of a detestable dragon,
and a lion, his friend and co-partner. The nobles bewail the fact in
hexameters, or at least in lines meant to do duty for them; and the
common people bewail the fact epigrammatically, and describe the
deaths of all who have attempted to slay the monsters, with a
broadness of effect that doubtless was acknowledged by roars of
laughter. Things grow worse daily, the fiends look down, and general
gloom is settling thick upon the empire, when Andrew of Scotland
and Anthony of Italy arrive, send in their cards, and announce their
determination to slay both these monsters.
Such visitors are received with more than ordinary welcome. The
emperor is regardless of expense in his liberality, and his daughter
Violetta whispers to her maid Carinthia that she is already in love
with one of them, but will not say which; a remark which is answered
by the pert maid, that she is in love with both, and would willingly
take either. All goes on joyously until in the course of conversation,
and it is by no means remarkable for brilliancy, the two knights let fall
that they are Christians. Now, you must know, that the established
Church at Trebizond at this time, which is at any period, was
heathen. The court appeared to principally affect Apollo and Diana,
while the poorer people put up with Pan, and abused him for
denouncing may-poles! Well, the Christians had never been
emancipated; nay, they had never been tolerated in Trebizond, and it
was contrary to law that the country should be saved, even in its dire
extremity, by Christian help. The knights are doomed to die, unless
they will turn heathens. This, of course, they decline with a dignified
scorn; whereupon, in consideration of their nobility, they are
permitted to choose their own executioners. They make choice of the
ladies, but Violetta and Carinthia protest that they can not think of
such a thing. Their high-church sire is disgusted with their want of
orthodoxy, and he finally yields to the knights their swords, that they
may do justice on themselves as the law requires. But Andrew and
Anthony are no sooner armed again than they clear their way to
liberty, and the drop scene falls upon the rout of the whole empire of
Trebizond.
The third act is of gigantic length, and deals with giants. There is
mourning in Tartary. David has killed the king’s son in a tournament,
and the king remarks, like a retired apothecary, that “Time’s plaster
must draw the sore before he can feel peace again.” To punish
David, he is compelled to undertake the destruction of the enchanter
Ormandine, who lived in a cavern fortress with “some selected
friends.” The prize of success is the reversion of the kingdom of
Tartary to the Welsh knight. The latter goes upon his mission, but he
is so long about it that our old friend Chorus enters, to explain what
he affirms they have not time to act—namely, the great deeds of St.
George, who, as we learn, had slain the never-to-be-forgotten
dragon, rescued Sabrina, been cheated of his reward, and held in
prison seven years upon bread and water. His squire, Suckabus,
alludes to giants whom he and his master had previously slain, and
whose graves were as large as Tothill Fields. He also notices
“Ploydon’s law,” and other matters, that could hardly have been
contemporaneous with the palmy days of the kingdom of Tartary.
Meanwhile, David boldly assaults Ormandine, but the enchanter
surrounds him with some delicious-looking nymphs, all thinly clad
and excessively seductive; and we are sorry to say that the Welsh
champion, not being cavalierly mounted on proper principles, yields
to seduction, and after various falls under various temptations, is
carried to bed by the rollicking nymph Drunkenness.
But never did good, though fallen, men want for a friend at a pinch.
St. George is in the neighborhood; and seedy as he is after seven
years in the dark, with nothing more substantial by way of food than
bread, and nothing more exhilarating for beverage than aqua pura,
the champion of England does David’s work, and with more
generosity than justice, makes him a present of the enchanter’s
head. David presents the same to the King of Tartary, that, according
to promise pledged in case of such a present being made, he may
be proclaimed heir-apparent to the Tartarian throne. With this bit of
cheating, the long third act comes to an end.
The fourth act is taken up with an only partially successful attack by
James, David, and Patrick, on a cruel enchanter, Argalio, who at
least is put to flight, and that, at all events, as the knights remark, is
something to be thankful for. The fifth and grand act reveals to us the
powerful magician, Brandron, in his castle. He holds in thrall the King
of Macedon—a little circumstance not noted in history; and he has in
his possession the seven daughters of his majesty transformed into
swans. The swans contrive to make captives of six of the knights as
they were taking a “gentle walk” upon his ramparts. They are
impounded as trespassers, and Brandron, who has some low
comedy business with Suckubus, will not release them but upon
condition that they fight honestly in his defence against St. George.
The six duels take place, and of course the champion of England
overcomes all his friendly antagonists; whereupon Brandron, with his
club, beats out his own brains, in presence of the audience.
At this crisis, the King of Macedon appears, restored to power, and
inquires after his daughters. St. George and the rest, with a use of
the double negatives that would have shocked Lindley Murray,
declare
“We never knew, nor saw no ladies here.”
The swans, however, soon take their pristine form, and the three
daughters appear fresh from their plumes and their long bath upon
the lake. Upon this follows the smart dialogue which we extract as a
sample of how sharply the King of Macedon looked to his family
interests, and how these champion knights were “taken in” before
they well knew how the fact was accomplished.
Mac. Reverend knights, may we desire to know which of you are

unmarried?
Ant., Den., and Pat. We are.
Geo. Then here’s these ladies, take ’em to your beds.
Mac. George highly honors aged Macedon.
The three Knights. But can the ladies’ love accord with us?
The three Ladies. Most willingly!
The three Knights. We thus then seal our contract.
Geo. Which thus we ratifie.
Sit with the brides, most noble Macedon;
And since kind fortune sent such happy chance,
We’ll grace your nuptials with a soldier’s dance.
And, fore George, as our fathers used to say, they make a night of it.
The piece ends with a double military reel, and the audiences at the

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Mass Customization and Customer

Centricity: In Honor of the

ISBN 978-3-031-09781-2 ISBN 978-3-031-09782-9 (eBook)

In Minnesota, as Roger Schroeder would say, there are two seasons:

After several years spent as a researcher, Cipriano became an associate

financial benefits in attempts to reducing product variety by investigating

highlights some lessons that can be learned by focusing on particular

Bolzano, Italy Thomas Aichner

Associate Professor of Marketing Thomas Aichner

Part I Managing Mass Customization 1

Part II Online Sales Configurators and Communication 149

Part III Research, Publications and Engagement

Personal Statements by Former Ph.D. Students335

Thomas Aichner South Tyrol Business School, Bolzano, Italy

Minh Tay Hyunh Faculty of Economics and Management, Free

Revisiting Form Postponement at the Operations-Marketing

The Role of SKU Management in Product Variety Reduction

The Internationalization of SME Production: Organizational

Online Shopping Preferences in Mass Customization:

Creating Customization Experiences: The Evolution

Enhancing Users’ Digital Social Interactions While Shopping

Impact of Racial Diversity in Advertising on the Perception

Fig. 7 Boxplot for perceived social value by ad version 263

Bibliometrics and Citation Analysis of the Works

Retrospective of the MCP-CE Conference in the

Fig. 7 The first joint workshop on Mass Customization and Open

Revisiting Form Postponement at the Operations-Marketing

The Role of SKU Management in Product Variety Reduction

Interorganizational Enablers of Mass Customization:

The Ghost in the Machine: A Multi-method Exploration of the

Online Shopping Preferences in Mass Customization:

Table 6 Customers’ willingness to customize by online shopping

Creating Customization Experiences: The Evolution of

Enhancing Users’ Digital Social Interactions While Shopping

Impact of Racial Diversity in Advertising on the Perception of

Bibliometrics and Citation Analysis of the Works of

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 3

strategies of pure customization and tailored customization (cf. Lampel

the operational-performance outcomes of FP (Forza et al., 2008). Our

uncertainty is reduced but not eliminated (Alderson, 1950; Whang &

Not unlike the consequences of applying FP to a forecast-driven PDA,

are willing to sacrifice the possibility to demand an out-of-range solution

3 Form Postponement and Uncertainty

postponement” stresses the point that customization is eventually per-

Table 1 Form postponement (FP) types and uncertainty reduction

FP, since this type of FP lengthens delivery lead-time. As a matter of fact,

4 Uncertainty Sources and Customers’

the product’s lifespan. Thus, choice is always a source of customer’s out-

customers’ preferences, provided this change regards the preferences for a

5 Linking Form Postponement, Customer

Table 2 Variables describing customer preferences for customization

we assume that these four contingency variables are dichotomous:

PDA be passed on to the customers themselves. However, given the

Proposition 1. Remaining-forecast-driven FP is most effective in increasing

I can hardly express the delight I feel as a biographer in the

and it may be said, parenthetically, that many a “true gent” is by birth

“Lie to great profit, borrow, pay no debts,

“We never knew, nor saw no ladies here.”

Mac. Reverend knights, may we desire to know which of you are

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Bolzano, Italy Thomas Aichner

Part I Managing Mass Customization 1

Part II Online Sales Configurators and Communication 149

Part III Research, Publications and Engagement

Personal Statements by Former Ph.D. Students335

Fig. 7 Boxplot for perceived social value by ad version 263

3 Form Postponement and Uncertainty

4 Uncertainty Sources and Customers’

5 Linking Form Postponement, Customer