FIRM: a new managerial framework of assessing Firms' Readiness for Mass customization

Today, managers have to evaluate their firm's readiness for mass customization to successfully utilize their knowledge and understanding of the firm and its customers in order to achieve superior performance. In this paper we propose a managerial framework for firm profiling which offers the strategic shift toward mass customization concept. The framework focuses on five general dimensions, most of them suggested by previous research: customer support and preference, manufacturing and supply chain readiness, knowledge management, e-commerce and intangible assets. Different indicators related to each dimension are explained as well as the methodology to validate them. More research on customer support and preference dimension is done to find the most impressive factors affecting this criterion.