To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijresmar.2009.04.001 Byline: Neeraj Bharadwaj (a), Rebecca Walker Naylor (b), Frenkel ter Hofstede (c) Keywords: Bundling; Consumer behavior; Customization; Preferences; Marketing strategy; Solution selling; Systems selling Abstract: Recent research on customization suggests that a need exists to examine conditions under which selling customized versus non-customized offerings will be more beneficial to vendors. To this end, this paper empirically evaluates consumer response to and choice of customized systems (offerings that are integrated and customized) in relation to standardized systems (offerings that feature integration but not customization). Through a series of studies, we demonstrate that the relationship between a buyer's systems purchase strategy and their future repurchase intentions toward the seller is moderated by a buyer characteristic (that is, a consumer's insight into his/her own preferences, or the degree to which a consumer can confidently and consistently express his or her true preferences) as well as a seller characteristic (retailer reputation). Given that consumers who are experts have greater insight into their own preferences than novices, our work also suggests that this greater insight into one's own preferences is a plausible explanation for why experts are more likely to choose a customized system. The main practical implication of our research is that it prompts managers to challenge the contention in some mass customization writings that customized offerings have universal appeal. Although the participants in our studies also tended to be more attracted to customized systems in general, this proclivity was lower for consumers with less product category expertise. This is important because our results convey that repurchase intentions towards a vendor will be higher after the purchase of a non-customized system by those consumers who lack insight into their preferences. As such, firms should try to propose customized systems only to those prospective buyers who possess strong preference insight, and propose standardized systems to those buyers who do not. Author Affiliation: (a) Marketing at the Fox School of Business, Temple University, 521 Alter Hall, Philadelphia, PA 19122, United States (b) Marketing at the Fisher College of Business, The Ohio State University, 2100 Neil Avenue, Columbus, OH 43210, United States (c) Marketing at the McCombs School of Business, The University of Texas at Austin, 1 University Station B6700, Austin, TX 78712, United States Article History: Received 18 July 2008 Article Note: (footnote) [star] The authors thank Cem Bahadir and Joseph Goodman for their feedback on an earlier version of this manuscript and participants at the 2008 AMA Winter Educators' Conference Special Session 'Bundles, Solutions, and Other Holistic Value Propositions' for their insightful commentary. The authors also thank Stefan Stremersch (Editor), the Area Editor, and two anonymous reviewers for their invaluable guidance.