Background: As Porter?s diamond (1990) suggested, the business environment highly influences firms? strategies. Today, most of the companies have to decide their strategy depending from a worldwide business environment. Yet, strategy researches and the growing importance of marketing for business success also show that customer dimension must be taken into consideration. On some markets and in certain industries, the offer is much higher than the demand and then, companies need to attract customers.

Take your phone out from your pocket and look at it. Chances are that a certain California-based company made it; in 2013, it was quite likely. If you flip it over and remove the shell you have added (or look through the protective film), you might also learn that it was assembled in China. Flip it over again and look at the picture of something or someone you find great affection for, protected by yet another thin film. While who made it and who assembled it might vary, and it does not matter from now on, the other parts about protective barriers and personalization might be more accurate.

This study presents a holistic view of which factors small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have to consider, in moving their customer order decoupling point (CODP) further from the customer, thereby becoming more customized. The study also investigate whether SMEs and larger enterprises differ in the strategic questions relating to what influences an enterprise to become more customized, which prerequisites are required and which problems enterprises should anticipate and prepare for. These questions are important, given that strategic change is challenging, and can take considerable time to accomplish; it therefore needs to be based on the right decisions. This study is motivated by the fact that the markets SMEs are selling to tend to become more and more complex and harder to anticipate. Increased globalisation and use of IT and ICT have lead to greater uncertainty in customer demand.