Testing the Impact of Social CRM on Firm Performance

Abstract

The present article proposes and validates a general model that studies the impact of social CRM on firm performance. The social media use is introduced as a moderating variable. Innovation performance and customer engagement are also introduced as mediating variables to make the model more integrative and comprehensive. For model validation purposes, a quantitative research was undertaken. An online survey was conducted. 195 responses were collected and a partial least squares analysis was used to test hypothesis and validate the research model. Results have shown mainly that social CRM has a positive direct impact on innovation performance and customer engagement. However, and surprisingly, customer engagement has shown no effect on the firm performance. In the same line, and contrary to our expectations, Social CRM did not show a causal and direct effect on firm performance; however, this effect was shown to be positively moderated by social media use. More details about the result evaluations are exposed in the core paper.