Is Mass Customisation Sustainable? A Literature-Based Analysis

Over the last two decades Mass Customization (MC) paradigm rose as the main strategy to provide individually design product in a cost-efficient way. However, the increasing importance of sustainability in today’s world leads the companies to question about the environmental, economic and social impacts of their business model, hence influences and interdependencies between MC and sustainability need to be analysed to leverage the sustainability potential of this strategy. A global evaluation about the implementation of the MC strategy on the sustainability dimensions is currently missing. This paper presents a literature review of the main contributions to this debate, identifying the main positive and negative effects of the MC paradigm on sustainability issues. Despite the presence of some theoretical papers and contributions, the lack of practical case studies prevents researchers to draw a definite trend.