Our own translation box: exploring proximity antecedents and performance implications of customer co-design in manufacturing

Customer involvement with design activity is one of the principal components of mass customisation. Whereas many studies proposed methods to enable customer co-design, more research needs to determine co-design predictors and its associations with operations improvements. This study tests relationships between proximity, co-design, and performance, and whether co-design mediates proximity-performance relationships. Following on recent technology and collaborative trends, the study uses a three-dimensional operationalisation of customer proximity that includes physical, virtual, and affinity proximity measures. Regression analyses of data from 698 manufacturers from metal-mechanic industries suggest that virtual and affinity proximity related positively with customer co-design, that co-design explained quality and delivery improvements, and that co-design mediated the relationship between virtual proximity and quality improvements.