Marketing metrics' usage: Its predictors and implications for customer relationship management

This research aims to determine the conditions that foster use of marketing metrics in customer relationship management (CRM) and identify the organizational factors that strengthen/weaken the impact of usage of marketing metrics on CRM performance. Based on the customer value-based theory of the firm and the contingency perspective, a research framework was developed to shed light on the predictor roles of customer value-based organizational culture and processes in determining usage of marketing metrics, and foster an understanding of the moderating roles of marketing-supply chain conflict, and innovative value proposition on the marketing metric-performance relationships. Empirical evidence from a sample of 209 business firms confirmed the main effect that customer value-based organizational culture and processes support a firm's use of marketing metrics that in turn enhance its CRM performance. Notable moderating effects were also identified. Although marketing-supply chain conflict weakens the impact of marketing metrics usage in achieving superior CRM performance, innovative value proposition strengthens the conversion of marketing-metric-related knowledge into superior CRM performance.     

Measuring and managing customer relationship risk in business markets

There have been repeated calls from top management and marketing academics for greater accountability in marketing so that the financial returns of marketing investments can be more robustly evaluated. These are coalescing around the issue of whether or not marketing delivers shareholder value. One promising line of enquiry explores customer lifetime value and the profitable management of these relationships. Although helpful, this approach fails to make the final link with shareholder value since customer lifetime value is still essentially a profit or cash flow measure and does not fully account for customer risk. This paper describes empirical research which explores differing approaches to measuring customer risk and the creation of shareholder value through customer relationship management (CRM). We develop a customer relationship scorecard which proves an innovative tool for managers to use in determining the risks in their customer relationships and developing risk mitigation strategies. The scorecard is then used to forecast retention probabilities, from which a risk-adjusted customer lifetime value is calculated. Both the scorecard and the calculations have an impact on the CRM practices of the customer relationship managers. From a theoretical perspective, an enhanced consideration of customer risk and returns is an important additional step towards demonstrating that marketing creates shareholder value.     

A process-oriented perspective on customer relationship management and organizational performance: An empirical investigation

Research on the CRM-performance link has been fragmented due to various perspectives on CRM. This study, considering different concepts of CRM, proposes a process-oriented framework for examining the relationship among CRM resources, CRM process capabilities, and organizational performance. Based on the resource-based view (RBV) of the firm, CRM resources are classified as “technological CRM resources” and “infrastructural CRM resources”. Data from 77 Iranian Internet service provider firms were gathered in a field survey. The empirical work indicates that the measured constructs demonstrate key psychometric properties including reliability and validity. The results reveal that CRM processes are more affected by infrastructural CRM resources rather than technological CRM resources. Moreover, the findings indicate that firms with improved CRM process capabilities enjoy better organizational performance.     

Does the level of experience have an effect on CRM programs? Exploratory research findings

A growing body of academic and practitioner literature has highlighted the differences in definitions and approaches to customer relationship management (CRM), suggested frameworks for successful CRM implementation, and provided evidences of CRM success and failure. Such accumulating wisdom might be expected to imbue practice with knowledge of what works better in CRM and to entail, therefore, an improving experience of CRM over time. To date, however, the effect of experience on CRM implementation has not been discussed in literature. This paper studies CRM from the organisational learning perspective. It provides evidence from empirical research conducted among users (firms), consultants, and suppliers (software vendors) about the effect of experience on CRM. The exploratory research findings of this study draw attention to the extent to which firms deploying CRM are sensitive and responsive to what they might learn from their implementation efforts and establish a platform for future research. The paper suggests the need for the two processes of CRM and organisational learning to move in tandem to be mutually beneficial.     

Interactive strategy formation: Organizational and entrepreneurial factors related to effective customer information systems practices in B2B firms

Interactive marketing requires that a firm learn about its customers and remember what the customer has said to personalize communications and customize product offerings to those customers. This type of marketing requires that customer information be actively managed because information from and about the customer is the core of marketing decision-making. In-depth interviews with 17 managers in five firms identified specific organizational and entrepreneurial factors pertinent to the strategic management of customer information. The research suggests that interactive marketing require a company that can itself be interactive with its internal and external environment to create strategies that can succeed in a changing environment.One exemplary company was compared to four others to uncover organizational issues and processes leading to effective management of customer information. Using the Resource-Based View and the importance of the effective management of intangible assets as its starting point, this research illuminated the processes involved with collecting and disseminating information and highlighted the firms' struggle with issues of inter-functional conflict. Perhaps most importantly, from a strategy-formation point of view, customer-centric strategies related to customer information management were found to be developed interactively, as a dialogue between middle and upper management, using customer data and competitive trends.     

CRM systems and organizational learning: An exploration of the relationship between CRM effectiveness and the customer information orientation of the firm in industrial markets

The firm's customer relationship management (CRM) system is frequently a central element of the knowledge management function of the firm. It integrates information from internal and external sources to guide managers and field personnel in the development and presentation of the firm's value proposition. But despite the widespread adoption of CRM systems by firms operating in business-to-business markets, there is continued management skepticism concerning the effectiveness of these systems and their association with the firm's overall “customer information orientation.” The present study seeks to shed light on these topics by evaluating the relationship between the customer relationship orientation of the firm and its use of CRM, as well as the association of CRM use with overall firm performance in B-to-B settings across a range of traditional business performance measures. The authors employ a multi-method approach to determine the key variables, including: database currency, internal database utilization, database accuracy and performance based reward systems utilized to operationalize the construct “the firm's customer information orientation” in order to develop statistical measures of the relationships of selected variables. The results of the study provide support for the finding that customer information orientation is indeed associated with CRM system implementation and that CRM use is associated with firm performance in B-to-B markets.     

Customer relationship management: Finding value drivers

Despite significant interest from both academicians and practitioners, customer relationship management (CRM) remains a huge investment with little measured payback. Intuition suggests that increased management of customer relationships should improve business performance, but this intuition has only inconsistent empirical or real world support. To remedy this situation, this study identifies a core group of expected CRM benefits and examines their ability to increase a firm's value equity, brand equity and relationship equity which are components of customer equity. Ten propositions explore the anticipated effects of these drivers and form an agenda for future research. These propositions establish a framework for measuring CRM and supporting the link between CRM and performance.     

Towards a framework of customer value assessment in B2B markets: An exploratory study

This paper examines the key processes and activities of customer value assessment in business-to-business (B2B) markets. Given that an increasing number of B2B firms are providing combinations of products and services, or integrated solutions, the present study examines customer value assessment from the solution supplier's perspective. Specifically, based on an exploratory field study and in-depth interviews with 18 managers in three different firms, the present study identifies five key processes (i.e., value potential identification, baseline assessment, performance evaluation, long-term value realization, and systematic data management) and 11 related activities involved in customer value assessment in B2B markets, and integrates them into a managerially grounded framework. The findings from this study contribute to the literature on customer value and solution research, and provide useful insights for managers on how to assess the value delivered by their offerings to customers.     

Developing customised CRM projects: The role of industry norms,organisational context and customer expectations on CRM implementation

This research paper investigates the influence of industry, organisational, and customer context on customer relationship management (CRM) projects. Organisations go through four phases in their CRM projects (assessment, design, implementation, and evaluation), yet the impact of industry norms, organisational contexts, and customer expectations on each phase are rarely examined. A longitudinal case study approach with six cases was used to investigate the potential impact of contextual factors on CRM projects. The cases covered a range of industries, organisational structures, and customer types. We found that current industry conditions and customer expectations influence the reasons for undertaking CRM and the assessment stage of the project. The organisational context has a noticeable impact on the design and implementation project stages. At the evaluation level, customer responses combined with organisational expectations affect the perceived success of the projects. By understanding the impact of context, customised CRM projects can be developed.     

A CRM performance measurement framework: Its development process and application

We suggest a performance measurement framework called a customer relationship management (CRM) scorecard to diagnose and assess a firm's CRM practice. The CRM scorecard was developed through a rigorous and stepwise development process collaborated with a number of firms in a variety of industries. During the development process, we conducted an extensive literature review to build a theoretical causal map, in-depth interviews with practitioners to extract a hierarchical map from industrial perspectives, feasibility tests to check whether or not Key Performance Indicators (KPI) could be measured, and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) analysis to prioritize the evaluation factors on the CRM scorecard. The CRM scorecard contains antecedent/subsequent and objective/perceptual evaluation factors in four different perspectives to comprehensively measure corporate CRM capability and readiness. To illustrate the applicability of the proposed CRM scorecard, we apply the framework to a retail bank in Korea well-known for its exemplary CRM strategy.     

The development and diffusion of customer relationship management (CRM) intelligence in business-to-business environments

CRM data is among the most important and comprehensive information available to management in many organizations. This is particularly the case in business-to-business marketing, where the firm's extended working relationship with its customers is frequently crucial for the maintenance of a healthy business. However, in many instances management has treated CRM data as highly specific to its client relationships and has therefore neglected to analyze this information across market segments, customer categories, and customer–firm relationship forms in order to draw meaningful conclusions for driving business decisions.     

Is customer loyalty vulnerability-based? An empirical study of a Chinese capital-intensive manufacturing industry

Through cooperation, firms can work together to collectively enhance their performance by sharing resources so as to achieve complementary synergism; while assuring their own self interests by adapting some opportunistic tasks simultaneously to gain benefits. There are few studies on the key but hidden reality of relationship vulnerability — i.e., the dynamic process of both creating relationship value and making sacrifices. We aim to empirically investigate the dimensions of a vulnerability-based relationship (complementary synergism and opportunism) and its link with customer loyalty. A framework is proposed in order to give a new dynamic tool in understanding and implementing effective customer loyalty strategies. Our findings revealed that the level of a vulnerability-based relationship is reflected by the high levels of flexible customization, relationship-specific bonding, coercive integration, buyer idiosyncratic investment and a low level of self-interest seeking. A vulnerability-based relationship also has a positive impact on loyalty. Managerial implications of our study are described.     

Managing the trade-off between relationships and value networks. Towards a value-based approach of customer relationship management in business-to-business markets

The management of buyer-seller relationships was an early antecedent to the development of customer relationship management (CRM) concepts. Currently, CRM concepts are being challenged by the rise of value networks. Value networks can and, often, do interfere with customer relationships and thereby call for a broader range of concepts to analyze and understand relationship management and the influence of value networks on relationships. This introductory article describes the nature of the problem between relationships and value networks, reviews the current state of research, and describes the contributions of the articles presented in this special issue on CRM in business-to-business markets.     

Micro-foundations of market orientation: Influencing non-marketing managers' customer information processing

This study examines how organisational context influences search, integration, and use of customer information at the level of an individual manager. Drawing upon research on market orientation, market-information utilisation, organisational learning, and marketing organisation, a theoretical framework is set up and tested by using structural equation modelling and a dataset consisting of 228 manufacturing and R&D managers in large industrial firms. Results demonstrate that integration of customer information enhances use of information in decision making. Organisational context influences the use of customer information indirectly by affecting information search and integration. Resource inadequacy and physical distance from sales and marketing contact persons decrease information integration, whereas supervisor customer emphasis increases the search scope of information. Wide search scope of customer information increases information integration but has no direct impact on use.     

Global customer team design: Dimensions, determinants, and performance outcomes

Designing and implementing global customer teams (GCTs) represents a key task for suppliers that are expanding the scope of their customer relationships. However, research has not provided an explanation of how these teams function and what determines their performance. Using an interdisciplinary combination of concepts from customer management and organizational behavior research streams, we develop an integrative framework of GCT design and performance. The framework is conceptualized with qualitative interview data and validated with survey data from 273 members of 113 GCTs in six multinational companies. Our results indicate that team performance is influenced directly by three team processes: communication and collaboration, conflict management, and proactiveness. Team design in terms of goal and role definition, customer coverage, empowerment, heterogeneity, skills adequacy, and leadership indirectly influences performance, mediated by team processes. In addition, three factors of the organizational environment—top management support, rewards and incentives, and training—have similar indirect effects.     

The role of multichannel integration in customer relationship management

This paper reviews the strategic role of multichannel integration in customer relationship management (CRM) with the objective proposing a structured approach to the development of an integrated multichannel strategy. Alternative perspectives of CRM are reviewed and it is concluded that adoption of a strategic perspective is essential for success. Multichannel integration is posited as one of the key cross-functional processes in CRM strategy development. The nature of industry channel structure and channel participants, channel options, and alternative channel strategies are reviewed. The customer experience is explored both within and across channels. Analytical tools, such as market structure maps, the customer relationship life cycle, and demand chain analysis, are described. Key steps in building an integrated multichannel strategy are examined. Major challenges faced by enterprises in their adoption of an integrated multichannel approach and areas for future research are discussed.     

Customer value anticipation, customer satisfaction and loyalty: An empirical examination

A service-dominant logic by definition is inherently customer oriented and relational, reflecting deeper and more complex connections between suppliers and customers. The service mindset driving increased collaboration enables suppliers to have deeper insights to what customers' value. Customer value perceptions are dynamic, sometimes in constant flux, necessitating anticipatory capabilities on the part of suppliers. Yet, there is a notable lack of discussion about customer value anticipation and related empirical evidence of whether or not customers care if suppliers anticipate what they value. The authors report on two survey studies that test using structural equation modeling the notion that suppliers good at anticipating what customers will value realize higher customer satisfaction and loyalty. Understanding this relationship is critical for marketing managers wrestling with allocation of limited resources. We find that customer value anticipation is a strong driver of satisfaction and loyalty, with satisfaction acting as a mediator for loyalty.     

Supplier traits for better customer firm innovation performance

Previous research on embedded ties with suppliers in an innovation context has ignored the need for customer firms to assess and select suppliers on the basis of market orientation strategies and relationship marketing attributes. To address this void, this study investigates the effects of suppliers' downstream customer orientation and supplier-customer homophily (i.e., similarity of the supplier and the customer) on the customers' innovation performance. Data pertaining to new product development projects with contributions from supplier firms was collected on both sides of the supplier-customer dyad. The analysis shows that downstream customer orientation and supplier-customer homophily have a significant impact on the customer firms' new product efficiency (i.e., project cost and project speed) and new product effectiveness (i.e., innovativeness), which in turn positively influence new product performance in terms of profitability, market share, and growth.     

Corporate reputation and customer behavioral intentions: The roles of trust, identification and commitment

How does corporate reputation influence customer behavioral intentions? This article proposes a model with customer trust, customer identification and customer commitment as the key intervening factors between corporate reputation and customer purchase intention and willingness to pay a price premium. We test the model by using data from 351 customers of three Chinese B2B service firms. Results indicate that corporate reputation has positive influence on both customer trust and customer identification. Customer commitment mediates the relationships between the two relational constructs (customer trust and customer identification) and behavioral intentions. Customer identification and customer commitment relate closely, but they are distinct constructs in the B2B setting.