this allows the firm the ability to use critical resources to produce exactly what customers are looking for, and the ability to target customer groups. flexibility also means quick responses to demand changes. in the co-creation process, flexibility provides a firm with the agility to make only the products that customers want, via communication with customers. this makes flexibility a critical route to customerization. co-creation practices are well established in business-to-business contexts and are increasingly applied in business-to-consumer markets.