Impact of e-CRM on Website Loyalty of a Public Organization’s Customers

Abstract

Web-enabled customer relationship management, or e-CRM, is able to simultaneously achieve the conflicting goals of strategic flexibility and operational efficiency in developing and executing innovative e-commerce marketing strategies. A multi-disciplinary field, involving such areas as marketing, economics, business strategy, information systems, social psychology and consumer behavior, e-CRM strengthens customer relationships via a portfolio of trust-building practices with the support of powerful information technologies. While most literature in e-CRM has examined how firms formulate and implement e-CRM initiatives, there is little information on the overall quality of an e-commerce firm’s e-CRM practices from the consumer point of view. This research proposes such a consumer-oriented concept, e-CRM value, based on existing e-CRM research, and examines the effect of e-CRM value on website loyalty. An empirical study is conducted to validate the theoretical model. Customers’ perceptions of e-CRM value have positive causal effects on their website loyalty. Valuable implications can be derived from this finding for public organizations in managing their customer relationships.