Customer Relationship Development Research Articles

An intercultural, interpersonal relationship development framework

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore how business-to-business (B2B), intercultural, interpersonal salesperson–customer relationships develop using the lens of identity management theory (IMT; Imahori and Cupach, 2005).Design/methodology/approachThe research uses qualitative semi-structured interviews on 18 targeted relationships with customers from another culture conducted with business-to-business salespeople.FindingsThe findings indicate that our respondents' relationships moved from trial toward enmeshment and on occasion toward the renegotiation phase, as described in IMT. In the case of low cultural diversity between salesperson and customer, the relationships reached the trial and enmeshment phase. In the case of high cultural diversity between salesperson and customer, the relationships on occasion evolved toward the renegotiation phase. Salespeople's cultural intelligence (CQ) facilitates the development of interpersonal, intercultural salesperson–customer relationships.Originality/valueThe authors transfer IMT from the personal relationship development arena to B2B intercultural, interpersonal relationships, address a gap in the literature in the understanding of salesperson–customer interpersonal relationships in different contexts and develop a theoretical model to understand intercultural, interpersonal salesperson–customer relationship development across different levels of cultural diversity.

The experience of regret in small business failure: who’s to blame?

PurposeFramed within the theoretical domain of attribution theory, this study aims to investigate the antecedents of experienced regret following an entrepreneur’s business failure (defined as firm discontinuance, closure or bankruptcy) and the impact of regret on personal well-being.Design/methodology/approachThe population of interest was business owners whose businesses had failed within the past five years. The data was collected from 319 failed entrepreneurs using an online survey. Structural equation modelling was used to test the hypotheses presented in this study.FindingsExternal attribution, including economic uncertainty and contract restrictions, was positively related to feelings of regret. Considering internal attribution, due diligence had a positive effect on regret whereas customer relationship development ability can reduce feelings of regret. Moreover, prevention-focused entrepreneurs were likely to experience higher levels of regret when engaging in extensive consideration in using information. Finally, regret had a detrimental effect on the entrepreneurs’ well-being.Research limitations/implicationsThe research provides fresh perspectives on experienced regret, a relatively unexplored emotion in the entrepreneurship literature. In the context of small business operations, the locus of attribution (associated with business failure) is the key influence on learning following failed business attempts.Practical implicationsThis study extends current knowledge of regret in the context of entrepreneurial failure, which has a significant catalytic effect on employment and entrepreneurial mobility.Originality/valueThis research sheds light on how emotional responses are derived from an entrepreneur’s self-assessment of their performance and attribution of blame for failure.

Online channel adoption in supermarket retailing

Introducing a new online channel is a crucial decision for brick-and-mortar retailers that requires insight and forecasts into customers' adoption and subsequent behaviour. The aim of this study is to analyse the dynamics in the behavioural heterogeneity of (new) multichannel supermarket customers when the online channel is introduced. A Latent Class Analysis (LCA) was conducted on 1151 adopters of the new online channel of a supermarket retailer to segment customers. We employed an extended “Recency, Frequency and Monetary (RFM)” model that includes customers’ purchases prior to the introduction of the new channel. Results show that adopters of a new channel are not a homogenous group of customers displaying a similar behaviour: two segments – or 35% of the sample – quit the channel after using it for some time, another segment (5%) left the company altogether, the other four segments remained multichannel to different degrees, with one shifting shopping substantially to online. Based on these results, the paper provides directions to retailers for developing Customer Relationship Management (CRM) strategies to manage the different customer segments and support channel performance evaluation and channel management decisions in a multichannel context.

PKM Pengelolaan Bisnis Berbasis Entrepreneurship pada Pengrajin Keset Kaki Desa Panggungduwet

Entrepreneurship-based business management for doormats craftsmen in Panggungduwet Village. The number of craftsmen who participated in the PKM program was 10 people. PKM collaborates with the Panggungduwet Village government and the Faculty of Management, Ciputra University. Craftsmen problems: (1) Doormats business without innovation; (2) The conventional sales system; (3) The doormat business generates low income (less than 1 million/month); (4) Doormats craftsmen without entrepreneurship-based business management knowledge; (5) Doormats craftsmen are afraid to sell products through an online sales system; (6) The character of the craftsmen did not believe in himself. PKM goals: improve the quality of human resources from craftsmen, business management and reduce the number of poor people in Panggungduwet Village. The PKM activity methods consist of: Business Model Canvas analysis, business management innovation, and business evaluation. PKM Results: (1) Innovation of the entrepreneurship-based doormat business management system by developing customer relationships; (2) Marketing media innovation with social media; (3) Creating jobs for 20 people in Panggungduwet Village who become doormats craftsmen; (4) Increasing 15% income craftsmen; (5) Increase the understanding of craftsmen on the concept of entrepreneurship; (6) Increased self-confidence of craftsmen in running business operations and executing product sales with an online system. DOI: https://doi.org/10.26905/abdimas.v5i3.4201

Influence of Cyber Security on Social Networks

In the 21st century, Media technology plays a vital role in every individual’s life. The world of electronic media, found an exponential growth. Presently the media world is filled with gadgets includes TV, mobile phones, emails, egames, interactive internet games, virtual reality games, iPods, instant messenger, esports, social networks etc.. This makes the physical world smaller in today’s days and helps in effective communication ranging from text messaging, multimedia message, video conferencing, virtual meetings and so on. As of today, social networks including Facebook, Twitter, Wordpress, Whatsapp, LinkedIn, Blogger, Google, Pinterest, and Wikipedia etc. has become the most powerful sources for sharing information and news updates. In addition, the cost of smartphones and internet data are reducing which makes easy penetration of this technology among people. Apart from the entertainment, the social networks created new business opportunities, sales promotions, marketing research, and customer relationship development etc. In this paper, the impact of social networks in family relationships is presented.

Retailing Trends and Developments - Challenges and Opportunities

The retail environment is changing rapidly. The competition is getting tougher. Some of the developments taking place include tighter consumer spending; new retail forms; shortening retail life cycles and retail convergence; rise of megaretailers; growth of direct, online, mobile, and social media retailing; necessity of omni-channel retailing; importance of retail technology; green retailing; and global expansion of major retailers. Retailers adopt a number of measures to be successful in the short run and in the long run. The article will sensitize retailers about the requirements to be successful in the competitive retail environment. All the strategies will help retailers to develop customer relationships and grow in the competition.

Design Approach for a Learning Factory to train Services

The automation of warehouse processes, the increased complexity due to e-commerce and the development towards paperless warehousing are one of the severe challenges the logistics industry is currently facing. Due to changing markets new service opportunities have opened up, thus to stay competitive innovative services are vital. Various service products are offered by intralogistics system providers to assist customers but the lack of understanding the services and the costs involved, causes customers to refuse acceptance of the services. Therefore, content of new services needs to be trained and awareness for service innovations need to be built which offers the opportunity to increase customer satisfaction and further develop customer relationships. The demand for practice-oriented training and education of customers is key to master upcoming challenges of warehousing facilities. This paper intents to develop a learning factory for services that promise 1) customers a better operation of their warehouses by correct use of services; 2) innovation opportunities for the service provider; and 3) further research opportunities between industry and academia. For this reason, in the first phase existing learning factories and services of an intralogistics company have been analyzed. Based on that service-learning factory concepts have been developed. In a third phase, a concept was chosen, further detailed and training contents were created. Based on this concept a prototype was built at the LEAD Factory of Graz University of Technology and tested.

Marketing information and intelligence and their roles in generating customer insights

Businesses revolve around customers. Companies require knowing and understanding their customers well. To achieve this, companies require knowing customer requirements and having customer insights. Customer insights cannot be generated unless companies have processes in place to collect marketing information and marketing intelligence. The focus is to do a detailed discussion about the various aspects involved in collection of marketing information and marketing intelligence for generating customer insights. Companies require having an efficient marketing information system in place. Marketing information systems help in capturing and storing information about customers. The paper also focuses on competitive intelligence to have a better understanding of customers. Companies require following ethical practices in collecting and analysing marketing intelligence. The paper focuses on this important aspect of business. Proper coordination and utilisation of marketing information, marketing intelligence, and marketing information systems will help companies to generate better customer insights and develop customer relationships.

Marketing information and intelligence and their roles in generating customer insights

Businesses revolve around customers. Companies require knowing and understanding their customers well. To achieve this, companies require knowing customer requirements and having customer insights. Customer insights cannot be generated unless companies have processes in place to collect marketing information and marketing intelligence. The focus is to do a detailed discussion about the various aspects involved in collection of marketing information and marketing intelligence for generating customer insights. Companies require having an efficient marketing information system in place. Marketing information systems help in capturing and storing information about customers. The paper also focuses on competitive intelligence to have a better understanding of customers. Companies require following ethical practices in collecting and analysing marketing intelligence. The paper focuses on this important aspect of business. Proper coordination and utilisation of marketing information, marketing intelligence, and marketing information systems will help companies to generate better customer insights and develop customer relationships.

Integration of Social Media Platform in Their Customer Relationship Management Process (CRMP) and Its Impact on Performance of SMEs

Background/objectives: Organisations in general need to have innovative strategies to tackle today’s business environment and demonstrate that they are adopting sustainable and new business practices. Accordingly, SME Companies aim to use the potential offered by social media for customer relationship management (CRM) to build up added value and long-term relationships based on a high customer engagement. Methods/statistical analysis: We used a method to examine the relationship between social CRM media and performance outcome in SMEs. Social CRM is a business strategy supported by social media tools to provide added value for organisations and their target customers. While, SMEs can be identified by three main criteria; the number of employees, the annual turnover, and the assets. Findings: This research studies the relationship between the use of social media tools and customer relationship development in SMEs sector. In addition, it concerns with understanding the role that social CRM plays in improving the performance of SMEs. Improvements/applications: From this research, organisation will be benefited. Organisations in general need to have innovative strategies to tackle today’s business environment and demonstrate that they are adopting sustainable and new business practices. Accordingly, SME Companies aim to use the potential offered by social media for CRM to build up added value and long-term relationships based on a high customer engagement.Keywords: Social Media, Social CRM (sCRM), Resource Based View (RBV), Fit Viability Model (FVM)

Double-edged effects of ethical leadership in the development of Greater China salespeople's emotional exhaustion and long-term customer relationships

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to present how ethical leadership has a double-edged effect to influence emotional exhaustion and long-term customer relationship developments of employees in a sales management context through a latent growth model (LGM).Design/methodology/approachTo test the LGM, data were collected by surveying 407 salespeople of a retail travel agency with 814 customers in Greater China at multiple points over an eight-month period.FindingsThis study found that, as salespeople perceived more ethical leadership at Time 1, they were more likely to show increases in the work engagement development that increased the service performance development and increased the work–family conflict development over time. In addition, increases in service performance development influenced increases in customer relationship development and increases in work–family conflict development also influenced the emotional exhaustion development.Originality/valueThese findings help managers understand that enabling salespeople to use their full capabilities to their work by ethical leadership may bring not only high service performance but also negative factors that erode salespeople’s well-being.

How to meet reuse and preparation for reuse targets? Shape advertising strategies but be aware of “social washing”

Preparation for reuse (PfR) is a fundamental waste management practice that is second only to prevention in the waste hierarchy. The paper, building on advertising literature, investigates how to leverage the pro-social nature of this option for giving products that have become waste a second life. To examine how advertising strategies based on emotional, functional or combined stimuli can be used to increase intention to buy these items, we carried out an experiment on 507 actual visitors a PfR items shop run by a social cooperative in Northern Italy. We found that, depending on consumers’ social involvement, both emotional and functional stimuli based on the social impact of preparation for reuse tend to outperform functional stimuli and have a positive impact on brand attitudes by shaping attitudes to advertisements. Purchasing behaviour has a positive impact on attitudes toward the PfR organization and moderates the effect of emotional and combines stimuli on attitudes toward the advertisement. Since emotional stimuli can be freely used by both legitimated and opportunistic companies, the former should seek to preserve their value proposition by making it easier for consumers to recognise actually trustworthy organizations. This is possible combining the use of advertisements with the development of solid customer relationships. To this end, awareness campaigns, closer relationships with stakeholders and third-party verifiable standards and certifications should be considered to reduce the risk of “social washing” in the current second-hand market context.

Transformational effects of social media lurking practices on luxury consumption

Contemporary luxury brands have fully embraced social media as a quintessential channel for improving brand perceptions and developing customer relationships. However, what consumers actually do when engaging with luxury brands online has received limited attention to date. In this study, we theorize and investigate how the practices of lurking transform luxury consumption on visual social media. Specifically, we uncover four lurking practices related to luxury brand content on social media: compassing, curating, collecting, and conversing. On the one hand, these practices facilitate the de-materialization of luxury consumption by idealizing the properties of luxury brands; on the other hand, they re-materialize luxury consumption into new digital virtual actualizations. Taken together, lurking has a transformational effect on luxury consumption as evident in the ways lurkers consume intangible luxuries on visual social media. The article concludes with a discussion of the theoretical and practical implications arising from these findings.

Marketing in emerging markets: a review, theoretical synthesis and extension

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of theoretical models and studies dealing with the international marketing strategies in emerging markets and provides recommendations for future research based on the review.Design/methodology/approachA review of literature on the topic was conducted and a new model is developed as a theoretical extension on the basis of insights from prior research.FindingsOrganizations need to take into account several characteristics of consumers and markets in advance as part of their business plan to select appropriate emerging markets, and decide best possible entry modes.Originality/valueTo the best of authors’ knowledge, there is no comprehensive review article on this subject, which provides directions for future research. The authors fill this gap in the literature and suggest strategies with regard to market selection, entry modes, market adaptation, customer relationship development with a new four-dimensional model.

Exploring the benefits of corporate accelerators: investigating the SAP Industry 4.0 Startup Program

Corporate accelerators are on the rise and established companies from a diverse set of industries and regions have set up such startup support programs to predominantly pursue strategic goals. The purpose of this study is to shed light on the benefits of corporate accelerators from a corporate perspective and that of the participating startups. In order to do so, this in-depth single-site case study investigates the SAP Industry 4.0 Startup Program building upon an inductive research design with explorative nature. The authors qualitatively examine a newly established corporate accelerator program of one of the world’s largest enterprise software companies and provide valuable insights for both practitioners and scholars engaged in corporate accelerators. The benefits for startups participating in corporate accelerator programs can be linked to operational go-to-market acceleration in regards to product development, sales acceleration, as well as skill and knowledge development. Moreover, the startups receive benefits linked to strategic business development acceleration in the areas of strategy and business model improvements, pitching, financing, and strategic partner development. At the same time, corporate accelerators overall aim to increase the competitiveness of established companies running such programs by developing a product ecosystem and the brand, infusing startup culture into the organization and developing customer relationships.

Ethical Issues and Concerns in Collection of Marketing Information and Marketing Intelligence

Companies require capturing relevant marketing information and marketing intelligence about customers to understand their requirements, formulate marketing strategies, serve them better, and develop customer relationships. Sometimes, it is difficult to collect information because individuals hesitate to share personal information due to a number of reasons. They worry about the manner in which companies use the shared information, and the safety, security, and privacy of the information. The article discusses the sensitive issues of intrusion of privacy of customers, the ethics involved, the responsibilities of marketing researchers regarding sensitive information shared by customers, the possible misuse of the shared information, the preventive measures against misuse of research findings, and the initiatives taken by companies and authorities to protect the privacy of customers. Such actions by companies will instill trust and faith in the minds of customers.

The impact of social media marketing on customer relationship development

The research of digital marketing trends has shown that Social Media Marketing is at the very top of the list in popularity among digital marketing techniques on a global level. Numerous arguments which can be found in specialized and scientific literature illustrating the importance of Social Media Marketing in contemporary marketing practice, as well as the obvious topicality of this media, have been reason enough for further research. Considering the fact that customers and customer relationship development have become business imperative of every company, this marketing technique has been studied within the context of customer relationship development. The research results show that Social Media Marketing greatly influences customer relationship development.

Design of an Intelligent Customer Identification Model in e- Commerce Logistics Industry

The emergence of e-commerce in recent years has lead to revolutionary changes in the logistics industry, as e-commerce relies heavily on efficient logistics to deliver the online goods to customers in a short period of time. Compared with traditional logistics, e-commerce orders, with a high variety of goods but small in quantity, are generally received from large number of customers worldwide. With a huge customer base, it is challenging for logistics service providers (LSPs) to provide satisfactory time-critical logistics services to meet the diversified customer requirements. In order to differentiate its services from others e-commerce LSPs, it is important to identify potential target groups of customers, and their behaviour so as to attract their attention. In this paper, an intelligent customer identification model (ICIM) is designed to support data analysis for managing customer relationships in a systematic way. The ICIM integrates the k-means clustering algorithm and the C4.5 classification algorithm in order to be able to deal with both continuous and discrete attributes for extracting valuable hidden knowledge. This effectively supports the identification of actual customer needs, and the classification of new customers in the future with minimum time for developing customer relationship management (CRM) recommendations to customers, thus improving business performance. Through a pilot study in a freight forwarding company in Hong Kong, it provides a real world demonstration and validation of data mining for CRM in the emerging e-commerce logistics industry.

Promoting frontline employee customer orientation in China: a replication and a comparison

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to test the influence of managerial coaching on frontline employee customer orientation, sales orientation and performance in a Chinese context. Further to this first goal, the authors also aim to compare these results with those obtained with a sample of Canadian bank employees in order to understand to what extent differences between Eastern and Western cultures affect business practices and employee responses in both environments.Design/methodology/approachThis paper replicates a study from 2014 that used a sample of Canadian financial advisors to test the impact of managerial coaching on customer orientation, sales orientation and performance. In this new study, 185 frontline employees from a large insurance company in Chongqing (China) answered a paper-and-pencil questionnaire in Mandarin providing information about the coaching received from their managers, their own customer and sales orientation, as well as performance. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling in AMOS as well as multigroup confirmatory factor analysis to evaluate cross-cultural differences.FindingsThe authors found that for the Chinese respondents managerial coaching is positively related to employee performance both directly and through the mediation effect of customer orientation. The authors found no support for the mediation of sales orientation between coaching and performance. These results suggest that managerial coaching might be a good strategy to promote relational behaviors in frontline employees, but not to reduce manipulative behaviors. The authors also found that these results are statistically equivalent for Chinese and Canadian respondents, suggesting that cultural differences are less prevalent than expected in this business sector.Research limitations/implicationsThe study makes several contributions to research. First, it suggests that managerial coaching can help employees develop their customer orientation–a central construct for commercial organizations working under a relational marketing approach. Second, it presents one of the first studies that evaluate the efficiency of managerial coaching in an Eastern country. And finally, results underline the equivalence of results for Eastern (China) and Western (Canada) respondents suggesting that in a global environment (like the financial industry) the business logic guiding the development of good customer relationships and employee customer-oriented behaviors prevails over potential cultural differences and makes leader and employee behaviors more similar and comparable across different regions in the world.Practical implicationsFirst, the use of managerial coaching seems to increase frontline employee relational behaviors, like customer orientation. Accordingly, managerial coaching seems to be a link that can help financial institutions bridge the formulation of a marketing relational strategy in the boardroom and the implementation of such a strategy at the customer interface between frontline employees and customers. Second, given the equivalence of results between the Canadian and the Chinese sample, it seems that the similarities between business models and business logics within the financial services sector are more important—and supersede—the potential cross-cultural differences between Eastern and Western countries.Originality/valueThe study makes a contribution to the limited literature on the use of managerial coaching in financial institutions to increase frontline employee relational behaviors. At the same time, it presents one of the few cross-cultural studies comparing results obtained from Chinese and Canadian respondents.

Developing customer relationship management (CRM) processes using standard frameworks and MCDM techniques

Organizations have found that functional approach to business destroys flexibility and agility by gaining experience over the time. The main weakness with Task-based organizations is that they can hardly act flexibly and adapt themselves to the changing environment. In today’s' dynamic and competitive business world, organizations focus significantly on managing and improving their business processes. Therefore, nowadays to be survived and successful, certainly, the process approach must be followed. In addition, organizations having such improvement and innovations are looking to create organizational wealth. In this regard, the present study is trying to identify and describe processes from reputable reference models in Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and more importantly to design and streamline CRM processes effectively for organizations in order to improve processes and offer value to customers. In this paper, first, by identifying and explaining CRM reference models, three models were selected based on five criteria (flexibility, Understandability, comprehensiveness, Completeness, and Usability) using Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) technique which is relative as follow: SAP, CCOR & PCF. Then, the processes of the three models were extracted and gathered in a comprehensive list to offer a united framework to design CRM processes. Finally, a case study will show the applicability of the proposed model. With this paper, we enrich research by a valuable process framework for developing well-designed reference models.