Electronic Commerce Customer Relationship Management: An Assessment of Research

Abstract

The status and maturity of electronic commerce customer relationship management (ECCRM), an emerging subfield of management information systems (MIS), are investigated through an exhaustive literature review of 369 articles, from the first published article in 1984 through conference papers given in 2001 and 2002. The results indicate some trends that should be of interest and concern to researchers in this area and in MIS as a whole. First, exploratory surveys dominate the research literature, which in itself may be problematic. More troubling, most of the survey instruments were not validated, and the authors did not mention validation procedures. Second, there has been little theoretical development, and few empirical studies use hypothesis testing. Third, cumulative tradition has hardly emerged, with each study developing a new conceptual model, new constructs, and new instruments. On the positive side, ECCRM researchers have employed a wide range of methods and studied a broad range of topics. The subfield of ECCRM is young, but is growing rapidly, and professional activity in the MIS research community illustrates its importance. Specific recommendations for further development are provided.KEY WORDS AND PHRASES: Electronic commerce customer relationship management, epistemology in MIS research, introspective study, MIS journals and conferences.Since 1984 more than 300 papers concerning electronic commerce customer relationship management (ECCRM) have been published in the literature on information systems (IS) or by IS researchers in referent discipline publications. The rapid increase in the volume of research in this context over the past several years suggests that a new subdiscipline of management information systems (MIS ) is emerging. ECCRM is now and will continue to be an important subfield of MIS research, as well as of relevant reference disciplines such as marketing, computer science, library science, and psychology. As an emerging subfield, it is an object of interest and worthy of study in and of itself [15]. With this in mind, the present paper investigates the development and maturity of ECCRM to gain an understanding of its evolution and current status, and to provide insights as to directions for future research. The analysis paints a picture of the ECCRM subfield of MIS through an objective representation of the growing body of literature from multiple perspectives: published journal and conference articles, epistemology and research approach, authors and institutions, research areas, and keyword topics.

Trust and Commitment: Do They Influence E-Customer Relationship Performance?

“…Many researchers agree that lack of trust regarding the internet and e-CRM is a critical issue that needs addressing. Researchers warn that a lack of trust may be the most significant long-term barrier to realizing the full potential Nor Azila Mohd Noor 285 of e-commerce 31,13,33 . We hypothesized that:…”

“…In this research, customer commitment is operationalized by using two dimensions: affective and continuance commitment. Affective commitment refers to the affective or emotional attachment to the service provider and enjoy membership 13 , whereas, the continuance commitment construct was developed to explain the extent that customer feel emotionally attached with Nor Azila Mohd Noor 287 a service provider. Eight items were used to measure these two dimensions based on the scale developed by Fullerton 48 .…”

“…E-CRM is a combination of hardware, software, process, applications and management commitment to improve customer service, retain customers and provide analytical capabilities 13 . Many companies have spent large amounts of money pursuing the development of a comprehensive e-CRM strategy, but many companies remain dissatisfied with e-CRM implementation because e-CRM projects are not creating measurable income on investment 14 .…”

Corporate blogs as e-CRM tools – Building consumer engagement through content management

“…Technology, Knowledge Management, Business Models, Markets and Human Factors are fi ve input variables integral to an e-CRM process. 26 Under these conditions, data mining tools can help uncover the hidden knowledge to understand the customer better, whereas a systematic knowledge management effort can channel the knowledge 27 into effective organizational strategies.…”

Effect of Information Technology Investments on Customer Satisfaction: Theory and Evidence

“…Significant investments in IT applications in recent years indicate the industry belief that IT applications can streamline both internal and customer-interfacing business processes (Chopra and Meindl 2003;Karimi, Somers and Gupta 2001;Romano and Fjermestad 2001). Since customer satisfaction is a leading indicator of firm performance (Ittner and Larcker 1998), it is important to understand the role of IT investments in enhancing customer satisfaction.…”