The impact of customer relationship management capability on innovation and performance advantages: testing a mediated model

Abstract

Customer relationship management (CRM) and innovation are widely considered to be valuable capabilities associated with competitive advantage. However, there is a lack of research demonstrating how they work together to produce performance advantages. This research investigates the mediating role of innovation between CRM and performance. The authors examine the direct impact of both CRM and innovation on firm performance. Moreover, they investigate the role of innovation as a mediating mechanism to explain the effect of CRM on performance. The authors use structural equation modelling to test the relationships among these constructs. The results support the direct impact of CRM and innovation on performance. Also, the findings indicate that the indirect effect of CRM on firm performance through innovation is significant. These results reinforce the view that developing close relationships with customers enhances a firm's ability to innovate.     

服务质量衡量及其客户满意度评价系统研究

CRM体现了以客户为中心的管理思想,是提高服务质量的重要手段。客户满意度评价则是CRM特别是分析CRM的关键。基于此,提出了用客户满意度来评价企业服务质量的理念,建立了客户满意度评价系统结构,重点论述了该系统中的综合评判子系统;分析客户满意指标、级度综合评价法,提出了客户满意度的多层次模糊综合评价方法及其实现算法。服务质量衡量及客户满意度评价系统将有助于企业客观评价自身的服务质量,及时作出改进服务的决策。     

An Integrated Model of Quality for Mass Services in the Context of the Ghanaian Retail Banking Sector

This study draws upon the service literature and operationalizes the investment model in the services domain to examine factors that contribute to customers’ desire to maintain service relationships with firms (i.e., retail banks) in an emerging economy in sub‐Saharan Africa: Ghana. We empirically test the explanatory power and robustness of the investment model using 218 customers of various banking institutions in Ghana. Results from partial least squares—structural equation modeling (PLS‐SEM)—reveal that (1) service quality is positively associated with customer satisfaction, investment size, and customer commitment; and (2) while customer satisfaction is positively associated with customer commitment, both investment size and quality of attractive alternatives are not associated with customer commitment. Interestingly, we found investment size to have a positive association with customer commitment only when fully mediated by customer satisfaction. Our model reveals that service quality and customer satisfaction predict 79.3% of the variation in customer commitment toward maintaining a service relationship with their retail banks. Discussion and managerial implications conclude the article. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Impact of Traditional Chinese Culture on Business-to-Business Relationship Marketing and Service Firm Performance

ABSTRACT

Purpose: This work addresses the mixed findings in relationship marketing studies regarding the importance of traditional culture-level (i.e., interpersonal) relationships on service firm outcomes.

Methodology/approach: This article leverages customer relationship marketing (CRM) theory to advance a framework for understanding the causal relationship between the Chinese cultural worldview and relationship marketing in order to better predict firm performance.

Findings: The author suggests that five major Chinese cultural characteristics—iren-qing, wa-pao, mianzi, chaxu-geju, and collectivism—can qualify the business-to-business (B-to-B) relationship building process and impact the effectiveness of interpersonal and/or group relationships on service firm outcomes.

Research implications: The study’s framework suggests that Chinese cultural characteristics, universal concepts manifest in the activities of Chinese society and organizations, have a positive effect on customer relationship marketing. Chinese culture characteristics can be used to generate excellent relationships with customers and thus create a consumer preference for certain companies and drive service marketing repurchase.

Originality/value/contribution: This study’s theoretical framework (a) distinguishes between Chinese cultural characteristic and relationship marketing relationships; (b) suggests that Chinese cultural characteristics and customer relationship marketing have a positive and substantial effect on service firm performance and that Chinese cultural characteristics are related to customer relationship marketing in their effect on service firm performance; and (c) provides managerially relevant guidelines for strategic sales planning.     

服务创新与服务忠诚关系模型——基于餐饮业的实证研究

以餐饮业为调研对象,用结构方程模式方法对服务创新与服务忠诚关系模型作实证研究。结果表明:人员服务过程和有形展示对服务忠诚的形成具有重要的作用;服务的有形附属产品创新对于服务忠诚的形成无显著作用;服务创新对服务忠诚的作用分别通过服务质量和感知价值来实现。     

基于CRM和供需智能匹配的移动物流信息服务平台

针对目前基于internet和无线网的物流信息服务平台普遍只靠单向发布初始信息,缺乏主动服务和自动调度、匹配功能而导致服务同质化、盈利能力、会员流失率高和不便管理和分析的状况,提出用CRM理念为引导,将物流服务的供需方数据和运营数据进行提炼、分析、处理,以使平台使用者和维护者获取更优质的信息和更好的服务,构建了一个移动物流信息服务平台的数据逻辑模型。同时,也为其他基于B2C/B2B的类似电子商务信息服务平台如何吸引高价值客户、提升客户忠诚度提供了一个借鉴思路。     

Success factors in a CRM strategy: technology is not all

Organisations today need to create, maintain and reinforce relationships with customers. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) seems to have helped firms to better understand their relationships. However, past studies have looked at technology and customer orientations (COs) as key factors. This paper aims to analyse the simultaneous effect of Market Orientation (MO) (rather than CO), Knowledge Management (KM) and other organisational factors in order to explain how to implement a successful CRM. Findings suggest that MO and KM may influence CRM success. Data also suggest that particular organisational factors such as employees, leadership and specific know-how may be key factors in determining the success of CRM. For efficiency resource management, this paper recommends to focus not as much in technology, but on programmes for selection, training and motivation of employees which may enhance CRM objectives. Companies may also pursue a higher customer value by putting in place and reinforcing KM schemes in specific know-hows about CRM.     

Strategic,Operational, and Analytical Customer Relationship Management

Abstract

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) means different things to different people. For some, CRM is the term used to describe a set of IT applications that automate customer-facing processes in marketing, selling and service. For others, it is about an organizational desire to be more customer focused. Others associate CRM with the capture, analysis and exploitation of customer-related data. One distinction that has been made is between strategic, operational and analytical CRM. This paper sets out to understand, conceptualize and operationalize these terms. Our research generally supports the idea of a multi-dimensional conceptualization of CRM. We develop and present an instrument, consisting of a thirteen-item scale, which can be used to assess an organization's orientation towards one or more of these three forms of CRM.     

Service innovation in the hotel industry: culture,behavior, performance

The aim of this study is to focus on the service innovation culture (SIC) in the formation of frontline employees’ (FLE) innovation performance based on two fit theories. More specifically, the research evaluates and examines the mediating role of challenge-oriented citizenship behavior (COCB) and charged behavior in the aforementioned relationship. To test the hypotheses, two-step structural equation modeling with bootstrapping estimation was conducted in AMOS, using data from 215 full-time frontline hotel employees over a one-month time period. This study establishes that the development of a SIC is positively related to the innovation performance of FLE. Likewise, the results indicate that there is a partially mediating role for the COCB and expanded charged behavior (encompassing vitality and creative self-efficacy) of FLE in the relationship between SIC and innovation performance. The findings of this study highlight the need for managers to incorporate a secure and trusting work environment so FLE will eagerly participate in the service innovation process by voicing their novel ideas. Managers can also consider the significance of the employee selection procedures and take advantage of employing university graduate for frontline service jobs.     

Consumer Reactions to Unethical Service Recovery

Ethical business practices have been widely prescribed, but why? Consumer’s views on unethical business practices have been studied, but possibly more important to marketers and researchers are consumer actions and reactions to unethical business practices and the businesses themselves. Do consumers react negatively, or in such a way as to "punish" the unethical business? If so, what is the nature and extent of the punishment? This research seeks answers to these questions by examining consumer reactions, such as complaining and switching, to instances of unethical business practices. Using equity theory, this research proposes that consumers should be willing to tolerate some unethical behavior as long as they feel their investments and outcomes remain proportionately equal. Consumers who perceive that their outcome/investment ratio is proportionately unequal to their comparison other will respond by switching or complaining. In this research consumers were exposed to two types of service failures with different levels of service recovery in vignettes. Costs incurred by the consumer during the service transaction were also manipulated in the vignettes. Significant differences were found for complaint behavior in the failure recovery vignettes tested. Specifically, voice complaint was higher in the high cost service encounters in both types of services tested. The recovery attempt used (ethical, unethical, or none) led to significance differences in the variables of complaint, voice complaint, satisfaction, and quality. Higher satisfaction and quality ratings were found for the ethical recovery attempt and higher intentions to use complaint and voice complaint in the unethical recovery attempts. One significant interaction between cost and recovery attempt was found. Intentions to use voice complaint were higher in the high cost situations of ethical and unethical recovery, while approaching equality at the no recovery attempt.     

The impact of technological and organizational implementation of CRM on customer acquisition, maintenance, and retention

In recent years, customer relationship management (CRM) has been a topic of the utmost importance for scholars and managers. Despite the evidence provided by numerous empirical studies, many companies that have implemented CRM systems report unsatisfactory levels of improvement. This study analyzes what influence companies can expect CRM implementation to have on performance and how they can leverage its impact. The authors propose a conceptual model that investigates the link between technological and organizational implementations, as well as the implementations' interactions with management and employee support and CRM process-related performance. By measuring CRM performance in terms of the initiation, maintenance, and retention of customer relationships, the study provides a detailed picture of what CRM implementations are capable of achieving. The results of the empirical study, conducted across four industries and ten European countries, indicate that CRM implementation does not impact performance equally for different aspects of the CRM process, and that it has an impact only if adequately supported by the appropriate company stakeholders.     

The CRM process in retail and service sector firms in Japan: Loyalty development and financial return

Research on customer relationship management (CRM) in general has focused on the effects of customer satisfaction with CRM, customer retention and profit management, and the effects of CRM technique on performance. Conceptually, however, a sequence of effects of CRM is expected, from CRM implementation to financial performance, but this sequence has not been explored. Whilst several definitions of CRM have been proposed, this article defines CRM as relationship-development programmes based on IT. CRM is regarded as the integration of relationship technology (i.e. data consolidating and data mining) with loyalty schemes. Survey research was conducted in Japan in the retail and service industries to test three hypotheses: (1) a firm's relationship orientation has a positive effect on CRM implementation (data warehousing, data mining, using customer data for decision making); (2) CRM implementation has a positive effect on return on equity; and (3) CRM implementation has an indirect effect on return on equity, mediated by customisation. Using a structural equation model the first hypothesis was supported, but the third hypothesis was only partially supported. In these analyses a direct effect of CRM implementation on return on equity (ROE) was supported; however, a negative impact of customisation on ROE was found.     

Customer Relationship Management: A Strategic Perspective

Over the last decade and a half Customer Relationship Management (CRM) has developed into an area of major significance. However, there is considerable confusion in the academic and managerial literature about what is meant by CRM and how if differs from relationship marketing. Further, despite heavy investment by organizations in CRM, there is extensive reporting of CRM’s failure to achieve anticipated results in the literature. This article reviews the conceptual differences between CRM and relationship marketing and defines these terms. It argues that, in many organizations, CRM failures have occurred through a lack of strategic focus. Key strategic issues are identified. A CRM Strategy Matrix is presented which considers the strategic context of companies and the implications for the development of their CRM strategies. Four alternative approaches towards building customer relationships are identified and migration paths between them are reviewed. Implications for implementing CRM strategy and future research are discussed.

New Service Development Process

Abstract

To continue to grow, more and more U.S. service firms have looked overseas in recent years to find markets for their offerings. Thus, innovation in the global context has become a strategic imperative for many service firms. While the issue of how to foster service innovation has been an area of extensive research, the cross-national comparison of innovation practices particularly between developed and emerging countries has been only a nascent field of research. To address this gap in the literature we conducted a comparative study of new service development process and stages of the financial service firms in an emerging country, India, and a developed country, the United States. The results support the central argument of the article that significant cross-national differences do exist with regard to a firm's new service development process. The findings should be of value to managers faced with the tasks of selecting and managing service innovation in emerging markets, as well as those firms experiencing international competition.     

Impact of CRM technology on sales process behaviors: empirical results from US,Europe, and Asia

Purpose: The diffusion of customer relationship management (CRM) systems across the globe, over the last decade, has created a need to improve the understanding of the impact of technology on the sales process from a global perspective. The authors examine how CRM technology impacts the sales process (creating opportunity, managing opportunity, and managing relationships) in three regions of the world (US, Europe, and Asia).

Methodology/Approach: The differences among US respondents (n = 789), European respondents (n = 327), and Asian respondents (n = 91) were explored. A multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was conducted on creating opportunity, managing opportunity, and managing relationships, with dichotomized CRM effectiveness and geography (US/Europe/Asia) as factors.

Findings: The MANOVA revealed a significant influence of CRM effectiveness, but a non-significance for geography and a non-significance for the interaction between CRM effectiveness and geography. This pattern of results suggests that CRM effectiveness leads to significant differences in sales processes; however, these influences are not qualified by the geography to which the firm belongs. Ensuing univariate Analysis of Varirances (ANOVAs) revealed a significant influence of CRM effectiveness on creating opportunity, managing opportunity, and managing relationships, but not for firm–geography or its interaction with CRM effectiveness. Post hoc tests revealed that firms high on CRM effectiveness were better at creating opportunity, managing opportunity, and managing relationships. Differences in CRM effectiveness lead to significant differences in sales processes; however, these influences once again are not qualified by the geography to which the firms belong.

Originality/Value Contribution: This study provides several contributions to the stream of research focused on CRM globally. First, due to globalization, CRM use and process can be more standardized across regions and cultures. With the evolution of technology such as Web 2.0 and cloud computing, barriers to communicating and exchanging information, regardless of time zone or location, have been decreased. A US firm’s use of a CRM platform can essentially capture the same information on a client that a firm in Europe or Asia also manages. CRM’s ultimate measure of success is for the buyer–seller relationship process to positively impact the level of business conducted.     

Conceptual analysis and implementation of an integrated CRM system for service providers

Customer relationship management (CRM) has become a critical issue in services management. Ensuring customer satisfaction and maintaining long-term relationships with customers have become essential for survival amongst competitive service industries. However, few studies have attempted to integrate all relevant factors in a comprehensive model of CRM implementation. The current study addresses this need by proposing a conceptually integrated five-phase model that incorporates elements of CRM, the service-delivery process and customer satisfaction (represented by the extended American Customer Satisfaction Index (ASCI) model). This integrated model of CRM is assessed in an empirical study of 63 leading Taiwanese service firms distributed amongst eight service industries. The implementation levels of various phases of CRM are assessed in a range of service industries by means of a questionnaire survey and in-depth interviews. The results of this empirical study reveal the strengths and weaknesses of various industries in their implementation of CRM. These results also represent a useful benchmarking reference for service organisations that have lower implementation levels in some CRM practices.     

Case Study of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) in the On-Line Affluent Financial Services Market

ABSTRACT

In the current period of constrained economic conditions, this study initiates an analysis of customer relationship management (CRM) on the Web sites of financial service businesses. Customer relationship management is a critical differential that enables competitive edge for businesses focused on the affluent customer market. Though investment in marketing, sales and service innovation is limited under existing conditions, the analysis of the study on large financial businesses indicates that the businesses enable higher commerce, content and context, but lower and generally inadequate communication, community, connection and customization design on their Web sites. The analysis, conducted as an assignment by adult graduate students in an information systems course, contributes important insight into the competitive dynamics of customer relationship management for Web empowered financial service businesses striving to service the demanding affluent market. This study furnishes an expanded framework to research customer relationship management of financial service businesses competing in the paradigm of the Web.     

服务链概念、模型及其应用

对服务链的特点、分类、模型以及服务链与供应链、客户链和需求链之间的关系作了全面和深入 的分析与研究。指出服务链是解决企业为消费者提供全方位、全过程、全时间服务问题的最有效方法。 以汽车消费服务为例,对服务链的应用作了阐述。     

Linking marketing capabilities with profit growth

Profit growth is one of the primary drivers of a firm's stock price and therefore is a clear priority for managers. Yet little is known about how a firm's marketing capabilities may be linked with its profit growth. In this study, we use data from a cross-industry sample of 114 firms to investigate how market sensing, brand management, and customer relationship management (CRM) capabilities determine firms' revenue growth and margin growth—the two components of profit growth. Our results reveal that these marketing capabilities have direct and complementary effects on both revenue and margin growth rates. Critically, we find that brand management and CRM capabilities have opposing effects on revenue and margin growth rates, such that a failure to examine these two underlying components would mask the relationships between these marketing capabilities and ultimate profit growth rates.     

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)'s Impact on B to B Sales Professionals' Collaboration and Sales Performance

Purpose: Sales literature has traditionally considered technology adoption from acceptance and diffusion perspectives. This article examines the impact of customer relationship management (CRM) technology on business-to-business (B2B) sales professionals' ability to collaborate with internal stakeholders and also assesses the relationship between CRM utilization and sales performance. The study moves from assuming that CRM utilization positively impacts salesperson effectiveness and performance to assessing this outcome from the perspective of the salesperson.

Methodology: A survey that was comprised of four scales was sent to 115 B2B sales professionals and usable surveys were received from 70 respondents. The data were analyzed using partial least squares regression to test the hypothesized paths. Partial least squares regression has been shown to work for small sample sizes.

Findings: There is empirical evidence that CRM adoption and utilization positively impacts sales performance, sales effectiveness, and collaboration. As a partial mediator, collaboration positively influenced CRM utilization's effect on sales performance. However, collaboration did not positively influence sales process effectiveness. Explanations of the findings are offered.

Managerial Implications: Sales managers can use CRM technology to make their sales team more effective and efficient. Second, increased collaboration across the firm positively mediates sales performance. Lastly, to increase collaboration, sales managers should stress that CRM leads to higher performance for both the sales team and the entire firm.