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Topic · Management of Technology and Innovation

Product Development and Customization

Product Development and Customization is a research topic within Management of Technology and Innovation. Science Explorer counts 17k research works in it since 1953. 10.0% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers explores the concepts of mass customization, product modularity, and their impact on complex product development, supply chain management, and customer integration. It delves into topics such as design structure matrix, platform-based product development, variety management, and change propagation in the context of modular product architecture. The literature also discusses the economic evaluation of mass customization, customer preferences for tailored products, and the implications of postponement for supply chains.

  • Mass Customization
  • Product Modularity
  • Design Structure Matrix
  • Complex Product Development
  • Supply Chain Management
  • Platform-Based Product Development
  • Customer Integration
  • Variety Management
  • Change Propagation
  • Modular Product Architecture
Research works
17k
fractional, since 1953
In the world top 10%
1.8k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.0%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
-17%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
China
28% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Product Development and Customization

Which countries lead Product Development and Customization research?

By volume, China and Germany publish the most (437 and 328 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 China 437 works
  2. 2 Germany 328 works
  3. 3 United States 285 works
  4. 4 United Kingdom 94 works
  5. 5 France 87 works
  6. 6 India 77 works
  7. 7 Italy 73 works
  8. 8 Sweden 68 works
  9. 9 Japan 56 works
  10. 10 Canada 46 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

China: 28.2%Germany: 21.2%United States: 18.4%United Kingdom: 6.1%6 others listed: 26.2%28%largest
China437 · 28.2%Germany328 · 21.2%United States285 · 18.4%United Kingdom94 · 6.1%6 others listed406 · 26.2%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Product Development and Customization research?

By volume in 2022-now, Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres publishes the most Product Development and Customization research, followed by Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft and RWTH Aachen University.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Helmholtz Association of German Research CentresGermany 34 works
  2. 2 Fraunhofer-GesellschaftGermany 31 works
  3. 3 RWTH Aachen UniversityGermany 25 works
  4. 4 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 19 works
  5. 5 Technical University of MunichGermany 18 works
  6. 6 Jönköping UniversitySweden 14 works
  7. 7 Technical University of DenmarkDenmark 13 works
  8. 8 Hamburg University of TechnologyGermany 12 works
  9. 9 Leibniz University HannoverGermany 11 works
  10. 10 Delft University of TechnologyNetherlands 11 works

Who are the leading researchers in Product Development and Customization?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Product Development and Customization include Kalyanmoy Deb.

  1. 1 Kalyanmoy Deb United States 171k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Product Development and Customization?

The most cited paper in Product Development and Customization is "Using PLS path modeling in new technology research: updated guidelines" (Jörg Henseler, Geoffrey S. Hubona, Pauline Ash Ray, 2016), with 7,029 citations. Next come "On the criteria to be used in decomposing systems into modules" (4,715) and "Customer value: The next source for competitive advantage" (4,663).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Using PLS path modeling in new technology research: updated guidelines Jörg Henseler, Geoffrey S. Hubona, Pauline Ash Ray · Industrial Management & Data Systems Open access 7 Jan 2016 7,029
2 On the criteria to be used in decomposing systems into modules David Lorge Parnas · Communications of the ACM Open access Dec 1972 4,715
3 Customer value: The next source for competitive advantage Robert B. Woodruff · Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science Mar 1997 4,663
4 The role of product architecture in the manufacturing firm Karl T. Ulrich · Research Policy Open access May 1995 2,893
5 Lean manufacturing: context, practice bundles, and performance Rachna Shah, Peter T. Ward · Journal of Operations Management 30 Oct 2002 2,893
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Product Development and Customization research done?

The largest centres of Product Development and Customization research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), Shanghai (China), Munich (Germany) and Karlsruhe (Germany). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Karlsruhe, Aachen and Stuttgart.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 60 works
  2. 2 ShanghaiChina 45 works
  3. 3 MunichGermany 32 works
  4. 4 KarlsruheGermany 32 works
  5. 5 AachenGermany 32 works
  6. 6 HamburgGermany 30 works
  7. 7 StuttgartGermany 26 works
  8. 8 HangzhouChina 25 works
  9. 9 Xi'anChina 24 works
  10. 10 TianjinChina 24 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. KarlsruheDE · 32.0 works20×
  2. AachenDE · 31.8 works16×
  3. StuttgartDE · 25.6 works14×
  4. HamburgDE · 29.8 works8.8×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Product Development and Customization than the world average.

See Product Development and Customization on the map

Where is the best place to study Product Development and Customization?

Among universities, judged by research, Politecnico di Torino, Delft University of Technology and RWTH Aachen University score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%20%40%mean 17.82%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Politecnico di TorinoChina University of …Delft University of …RWTH Aachen University
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1Politecnico di TorinoItaly 71.432.0%11.8×10 +38.2%
2Delft University of TechnologyNetherlands 51.614.2%8.3×11 +17.0%
3RWTH Aachen UniversityGermany 50.07.1%16.9×25 -42.4%
4China University of Mining and TechnologyChina 48.822.2%6.0×9 +57.3%
5Technical University of MunichGermany 48.711.5%10.9×18 -23.4%
6University of BolognaItaly 45.918.5%5.2×8 +70.6%
7Technical University of DenmarkDenmark 45.28.1%13.6×13 -46.9%
8Politecnico di MilanoItaly 44.915.7%7.6×10 -41.3%
9Tianjin UniversityChina 43.327.1%3.7×8 +66.7%
10Sichuan UniversityChina 40.621.8%2.2×9 +140.1%

Universities only. The score blends excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Product Development and Customization, country by country

Is Product Development and Customization research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 17% lower than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2011.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Product Development and Customization as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.0080% in 2024.

still counting0.010%0.020%0.030%Product Development and Customization0.0087% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Product Development and Customization over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Product Development and Customization10.3% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

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