Application of customer relationship management in vietnamese trading SMEs

ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI
KHOA QUẢN TRỊ VÀ KINH DOANH
---------------------

PHAN TÙNG

APPLICATION OF CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP
MANAGEMENT IN VIETNAMESE TRADING SMES
ỨNG DỤNG QUẢN TRỊ QUAN HỆ KHÁCH HÀNG
TRONG DOANH NGHIỆP THƢƠNG MẠI VỪA VÀ NHỎ
TẠI VIỆT NAM

LUẬN VĂN THẠC SĨ QUẢN TRỊ KINH DOANH

HÀ NỘI - 2018


ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI
KHOA QUẢN TRỊ VÀ KINH DOANH
---------------------

PHAN TÙNG

APPLICATION OF CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP
MANAGEMENT IN VIETNAMESE TRADING SMES
ỨNG DỤNG QUẢN TRỊ QUAN HỆ KHÁCH HÀNG
TRONG DOANH NGHIỆP THƢƠNG MẠI VỪA VÀ NHỎ
TẠI VIỆT NAM

Chuyên ngành: Quản trị kinh doanh
Mã số: 60 34 01 02

LUẬN VĂN THẠC SĨ QUẢN TRỊ KINH DOANH

NGƢỜI HƢỚNG DẪN KHOA HỌC: TS. NGÔ VI DŨNG

Hà Nội - 2018


STATEMENT
The author confirms that the research outcome in the thesis is the result of
author‘s independent work during study and research period and it is not yet
published in other‘s research and article.
The other‘s research result and documentation (extraction, table, figure,
formula,and other document) used in the thesis are cited properly and the
permission (if required) is given.
The author is responsible in front of the Thesis Assessment Committee,
Hanoi School of Business, and the laws for above-mentioned declaration.
Phan Tung


ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor,
PhDDr. NGO VI DUNG, at the Hanoi School of Business and Management (HSB),
Vietnam National University (VNU) for his detailed guidances and valued advices.
Without his guidance and persistent help this thesis would not have been completed.
I would like to express my great thank to all my colleagues and friends for their
warmly support during my thesis. My special thanks come to DNS management and
staffs for all encourages and supports during the whole my MBA course.
Last but not least, I would like to express my deeply thank to my wife, my
children, family members and friends. They were the one that are always beside me
and supporting me during all the process.

Phan Tung


ABSTRACT
This paper aimed to identify the key antecedentsof CRM application and barrier
factors that Vietnam SMEs faced when implementing CRM and provide some suggestions
to improving the stated process. Based on qualitatitive research using focus group discussion
method and quantitative survey analysis as supplementation, we found that there are 6 key
antecedents of CRM application as follow: (1) Relationship Marketing, (2) Knowledge
Management, (3) Motivation of Innovation, (4) Technological Resources, (5) Human
Resource Development, (6) Change Management; and 5 key barrier factors that have
negative impact to Vietnam SMEs‘ CRM implementation process as follow: (1) Changing
Business Culture and Cross functional interaction, (2) Lacks of Customer Knowledge
Management Ability, (3) Lacks of new processes and standards, (4) Lacks of skillful Human
Resources and, (5) Information Security Threats. Furthermore, the key antecedents of CRM
implementation in Vietnam SMEs are Relationship Marketing, Knowledge Management,
Change Management, Human Resource Development, Technological Resources and
Motivation of Innovation. Implications for top managements of Vietnam SMEs for
improving CRM implementation and future research were also suggested.


TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABBREVIATION ..................................................................................................... iii
LIST OF TABLE ................................................................................................... iiiiii
LIST OF FIGURES.............................................................................................iiiiiiiii

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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ...........................................................................114
1.1. Rationale ......................................................................................................114
1.2. Research Objectives.....................................................................................336
1.3. Subject and Scope of Research ....................................................................336
1.4. Structure of the thesis ..................................................................................336
CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND.................................................558
2.1. Definition of CRM and its conceptualization problems ..............................558

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2.2. Benefits or objectives of business when implementing CRM ...................8811
2.3. Key factors for success and barriers of CRM application .....................101012
2.4. Key antecedents of CRM application ....................................................111114
2.5. Hypotheses development and research model .......................................202023
2.5.1. Background of Vietnam SMEs ....................................................202023
2.5.2. Barriers of CRM implementation in Vietnam SMEs ...................212124
2.5.3. Research Model ............................................................................262629
2.6. Chapter Brief..........................................................................................282831
CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY ....................................................................292932
3.1. Research design .....................................................................................292932

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3.2. Data sources and data collection............................................................313134
3.3 Qualitative research ................................................................................313134
3.4. Research measurements .........................................................................363639
3.5. Quantitative research .............................................................................383841

3.6. Validity and reliability ...........................................................................393942
3.7. Ethical consideration..............................................................................404043
3.8. Chapter brief ..........................................................................................404043
CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS..............................................414144

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4.1. Sample description .................................................................................414144
4.2. Results of focus group discussion..........................................................414144
4.3. Results of survey....................................................................................424245
4.4. Discussion on the results .......................................................................454548
4.5. Chapter brief ..........................................................................................525255
CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS, LIMITATIONS AND IMPLICATIONS.....535356
5.1. Conclusions ............................................................................................535356

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5.2. Implications and suggestions for Vietnam SMEs ...............................545457
5.3. Limitations .............................................................................................606063
5.4. Recommendation for future research.....................................................616164
REFERENCES ..................................................................................................626265
APPENDIX I: QUESTIONNAIRE ..................................................................787074

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ABBREVIATION
1. CRM: Customer Relationship Management
2. SMEs: Small and Medium Enterprises
3. AI:

artificial intelligence

4. SFA: Sale force automation
5. KMS: Knowledge Management System
6. RM:

Relationship Marketing

7. ERP: Enterprise resource planning
8. NPD: New product development
9. BPS: Business process standardization
10. BPR: Business process reengineering
8.

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LIST OF TABLE
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Table 2.1: Benefit of successfully CRM implementation ...........................................9
Table 2.2: Success factors for CRM implementation ...............................................10

Table 2.3: Barriers factors identified by previous studies ........................................11
Table 2.4: Transactional marketing vs CRM approach (Piccoli et al., 2003) ...131312

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Table 3.1. Key barrier factors and sub-dimensions to CRM implementation in
Vietnam SMEs. .................................................................................................323231
Table 3.2: Operationalized variables.................................................................363635
Table 4.1: Respondent‘s background ................................................................414140
Table 4.2. Results on the key factors of barrier ................................................424241
Table 4.3. Results on the sub-dimension of each factor ...................................434342
Table 4.4. 6 sub-dimensions as most commonly barriers .................................454544
Table 4.5: Detail sub-dimensions of Barrier 1-Changing Business Culture and
Cross-functional interaction ..............................................................................464645
Table 4.6: Detail sub-dimensions of Barrier 2- Lacks of customer management
knowledge .........................................................................................................474746
Table 4.7: Detail sub-dimensions of Barrier 3-Lacks of new processes and standards
...........................................................................................................................494948
Table 4.8: Detail sub-dimensions of Barrier 4-Lacks of skillful Human Resources
...........................................................................................................................505049
Table 4.9: Detail sub-dimensions of Barrier 5-Information Security Threats ..515150
Table 5.1. CRM implementation key antecedents ............................................535352
Table 5.2. Key barriers in CRM implementation for Vietnam SMEs ..............545453
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ii


LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 2.1: Evolution of CRM (Haran, 2005) .............................................................8
Figure 2.2. Knowledge Management System (Fteimi and Lehner, 2014) ........141413
Figure 2.3: Factors of Change (Pries & Stone, 2004) .......................................181817
Figure 2.4: Transition Curve (Carnall, 1990) ...................................................191918
Figure 2.5: CRM Knowledge Management process .........................................232322
Figure 2.6. Research model ...............................................................................272726
Figure 3.1 Research process ..............................................................................303029

iii

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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

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1.1. Rationale
CRM (customer relationship management) has been increasingly recognized
as a business strategy to effectively understand, manage, and sustain customer
relationship with advanced information and communication technologies.
The term of "relationship marketing", coined by Berry(1983) emphasized on
continuing relationships rather than simply individual transaction. It is a new-old
concept. The idea of a business earning the customers' favor and loyalty by
satisfying their wants and needs was not unknown to the earliest merchants.
Gronroos (1994) cites this Middle Eastern proverb from ancient trade: "As a
merchant, you'd better have a friend in every town."
Before the mid of twentieth century, most of the retails activities take place
in small stores, the purchasing process was very simple, allowed the shopkeeper and
customer to spend quality time getting to know each other. The shopkeeper deeply

understand about his/her customers' habits and behaviours. After that, at the mid of
last century, the mass production techniques and mass marketing fundamentally
changed the competitive landscape by increasing product availability for
consumers. Many huge shopping malls and super markets with rich merchandise
portfolio in a convenient way gradually replace the small stores in trading activities.
Customer lost their uniqueness, as they became an ―account number‖ and
shopkeepers lost track of their customers‘ individual needs as the market became
full of product and service options. (Chen & Popovich, 2003).
In the 21st century, the explosive growth of the Internet and information
technology(IT) has also brought new ways for businesses to communicate with their
customers in various cost effective ways, such as: website, email, cloud-based CRM
applications,... and now even the omni-channel retailing fullfilment system with
artificial intelligence(AI) and cognitive technologies supported are not

fiction

(IBM-Watson,2017). Attracting customer has become very difficult these days,
when people are harder to please. They are smarter, price conscious and sensitive,

1


more demanding, less forgiving, and they are approached by many more
competitors with equally good or better offers (Kotler,2003).
Increasing competition and decreasing customer loyalty have led to the
emergence of concepts that focus on the nurturing of relationships to
customers(Fazlzadeh,2011). The combination of "the old" relationship marketing
mindset and "the new" CRM and other business support technologies might be the
answer for a sustainable way to nurture relationship with customers. Many
companies today are racing to re-establish their connections to new as well as

existing customers to boost long-term customer loyalty. Some companies are
competing effectively and winning this race through the implementation of
relationship marketing principles using strategic and technology-based customer
relationship management (CRM) applications.(Chen & Popovich, 2003).
SMEs are featured with limitation of capital and resources,but recently as the
cost for CRM application significant reduced and Nielsel approximated the
explosive growth of Vietnam e-commerce market at a rate of 22%last year, many
Vietnam SMEs start deploying CRM as solutions to improve its relationship with
customer). Report from a SME CRM solution provider in Vietnam indicated that
during last year their customer growth was more than 200%. But during the process
of CRM implementation, representative also noted that Vietnam SMEs faced a lot
of obstacle in the process of achieving the properly benefits.According to our best
knowledge, there is currently no studies on barriers on CRM management in the
context of Vietnam. In addition, because more than 90% of Vietnamese firms are
SMEs (GSO, 20161). Thus, this study aimed to identify barriers in implementing
customer relationship management in Vietnam SMEs by answering the following
questions:
1. What are the benefits or objectives of business when implementing CRM?
2. What areis the key antecedents that affects the result of CRM
implementation?
3. What areis the major barriers that VNSMEs faced when implementing
1

/>
2


CRM?
1.2. Research Objectives
To review existing knowledge on barriers of customer relationship

management provided by previous studies;
To identify key antecedents of CRM application that affects the result of
CRM implementation;
To identify barriers in implementing customer relationship management of
Vietnamese SMEs;
To provide some suggestions in CRM implementation practices to
improveVNSMEs performance and benefit in developing long-term relationship
with their customers.
1.3. Subject and Scope of Research
Research Subject
The research subject of this thesis areis the key antecedents of CRM
application andbarrier factors of CRM implementation of Vietnamese SMEs.
Research Scope
This study examine Vietnamese SMEs which implementing CRM for their
businesses activities in Vietnam. The timespan for data collection is cros-sectional
and implemented in 2017.
1.4. Structure of the thesis
Part 1 presents the introduction, Part 2 presents the literature and theoretical
framework relate to practice in CRM implementation and benefit in developing
relationship with customer, Part 3 presents about methodology where the research
design and research methods are explained. Part 4 explains results and discussions
while Part 5 gives conclusions, limitations and implications.
Detailed structure of this thesis is:
Statement
Abstract
Abbreviations
List of tables

3

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List of figures
Part 1: Introduction
Part 2: Theoretical background
Part 3: Methodology
Part 4: Results and discussions
Part 5: Conclusions, limitations and implications
References
Appendices

4


CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
The second part presents academic literatures on the subjects of CRM
definition, key antecedents and barrier factors of implementing CRM. It provides
relevant theories, researches and studies, as well as to provide the conceptional
framework. The chapter also provides definitions and elaborations on the main
concept of practice in CRM implementation and barriers that impact CRM
implementation;
The chapter will end with identification of variables and formulation of

hypotheses.
2.1. CRM and key antecedents of implementing Definition of CRM and its
conceptualization problems
Definitions of CRM and its conceptualization problems
Customer relationship management (CRM) was the buzz word of the 1990‘s.
Until now, CRM is one of the hottest topic in the fields of business strategy,
marketing management and information technology. Many researchers such as
Peppers and Rogers (1999),Chen and Popovich (2003), Day and Van Den Bulte
(2002), Gulati and Garino (2000), even some organizations: Gartner Group (1999),
Hewson Group (2001), have tried to describe it, but CRM still experienced
problems with reference to its conceptualization: CRM means different things to
different people (Kale, 2004). This multi-dimensional characteristic of CRM has
created ambiguities in how it is defined; there is no universally accepted definition
of CRM (Ngai, 2005). The following section will try to describe what customer
relationship management is through the evolution of CRM combined with
definitions of CRM based on different level points of view: CRM as a toolset, CRM
as a process or cross-functional process and CRM as a business strategy or multidimensional concept.
CRM as a tool or a set of tools
Customer relationship management itself is an outgrowth of sales force
automation (SFA) tools, CRM is often referred to in the literature as one-to-one

5


marketing (Peppers and Rogers, 1999). SFA software automates routine tasks such
as tracking customer contacts and forecasting. Fickel(1999) define CRM as the
technology application link front office (e.g. sales, marketing and customer service)
and back office (e.g. financial, operations, logistics and human resources) functions
with the company‘s customer ―touch points‖. With more details, in 2003 Agrawal
described CRM is typically designed as a toolset for guiding sales teams and

supporting engineers and other specialists in developing sales prospects, creating
appropriate business proposals, dealing with customer objections, and providing
post-sales customer support. CRM integrates touch points around a common view
of the customer. (Eckerson & Watson, 2000)
CRM as a process or cross-functional process
―Customer relationship management (CRM) as the process of achieving and
maintaining an ongoing relationship with customers across multiple customer touch
points through differential and tailored treatment of individual customers based on
their likely responses to alternative marketing programs, such that the contribution
of each customer to the overall profitability of the firm is maximized‖ Kumar and
Ramani(2004). ―A cross-functional process for achieving a continuing dialogue
with customers, across all their contact and access points, with personalized
treatment of the most valuable customers, to increase customer retention and the
effectiveness of marketing initiatives.‖(Day and Van Den Bulte, 2002). ―An
interactive process achieving the optimum balance between corporate investments
and the satisfaction of customer needs to generate the maximum profit‖(Gebert et
al., 2002).
CRM as a business strategy or multi-dimensional definition
―A CRM business strategy leverages marketing, operations, sales, customer
service, human resources, R&D and finance, as well as information technology and
the Internet to maximize profit ability of customer interactions. For customers,
CRM offers customization, simplicity, and convenience for completing transactions,
regardless of the channel used for interaction‖ (Gulati and Garino, 2000).
―Customer relationship management (CRM) is a combination of people, processes

6


and technology that seeks to understand a company‘s customers. It is an integrated
approach to managing relationships by focusing on customer retention and

relationship development‖ (Chen & Popovic,2003).
―Activities a business performs to identify, qualify, acquire, develop and
retain increasingly loyal and profitable customers by delivering the right product or
service, to the right customer, through the right channel, at the right time and the
right cost. CRM integrates sales, marketing, service, enterprise resource planning
and supply chain functions through business process automation, technology
solutions and information resources to maximise each customer contact. CRM
facilitates relationships among enterprises, their customers, business partners,
suppliers and employees.‖ (Galbreath and Rogers, 1999). ―A business strategy that
maximises shareholder value through winning, growing and keeping the right
customers‖ (Hewson Group, 2001) .Construed the scope of CRM as encompassing
strategy,management of the dual creation of value, intelligent use of data and
technology, acquisition and dissemination of customer knowledge to appropriate
stakeholders, development of appropriate (long-term) relationships with specific
customers and/or customer groups, and the integration of processes across the many
areas of the firm and across the network of firms that collaborate to generate
customer value. (Boulding et al., 2005)
When developing a framework to assist the implementation of CRM, Haran
(2005) has provide a table to demonstrate how CRM has evolved over the last
couple of years through different researchers:

7


Figure 2.1: Evolution of CRM (Haran, 2005)
As the technology keep growing in a fast pace, according to the author, CRM
still can be defined as a customer-focusbusiness stragtegy, even methodology that
combine of people, processes and technology to manage the loop of developing
capability to:
 Understand most profitable target customer‘s wants and needs

 Deploy a clear, properly and attractive value proposition and company
images
 Continuously verify the effectiveness through market feedback on
conversion rates
 Build strong customer relationship and utilization profit based on
improvement of customer acquisition and customer retention
 Revise, re-emphasize or develop new value proposition based on new
and verified customer knowledge
2.2. Benefits or objectives of business when implementing CRM
Positive impact of successfully implementation of Customer Relationship
Management is widely recognized in most of the literature. These have been many
studies focusing on the benefit of business when successfully implementation of
CRM as well as practice factors for success in CRM application. CRM is one of the
hottest topic in the fields of business strategy, marketing management, and

8

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information technology (Fazlzadeh et al, 2011). CRM is also a cross functional
philosophy that calls for substantial business intergration. Thus, to implement CRM
successfully, a very different mindset is needed (Piccoli et al, 2003).
Successfully implementing CRM application have resulted in increased
competitiveness for many companies as witnessed by higher revenues and lower
operational costs. Managing customer relationships effectively and efficiently not only
boosts customer satisfaction but also improves retention rates (Reichheld, 1996; Jackson,
1994; Levine, 1993). CRM applications help organizations gain customer loyalty and
increase profitability by improving life-time value of each customers.
CRM application offers the benefit of sharing customer data throughout the

organization and implementing innovative technology that resulting in remarkable
competitive advantages as below:
Table 2.1: Benefit of successfully CRM implementation
Customer data sharing throughout the CRM innovative technology:
organization resulting in:
Superior levels of customer service

Extends capability to the customer for

Opportunities for cross-selling and up- self-service and Internet applications
selling
Vast

Attracts existing and new customers
information

about

customers‘ through personalized communications

habits and references

and improved targeting.

Integrated and complete view of the Integrates
customer

customer

and

supplier

relationships

Improved targeting to segments and Constructs metrics to analyze common
individual customers

and

Efficient call centers/service centers
Source: (Chen & Popovich, 2003)

9

unique

customer

patterns


2.3. Key factors for success and barriers of CRM application
Key factors for success and barriers of CRM application
Case studies and data sets examined in the academic literature, to date, are
largely comprised of successes (Bohling, 2006). For instance, Leverick et al. (1998)
provide a wide ranging review of success factor research with particular reference
to the marketing domain. By way of more specific areas, Ryals et al. (2000) provide

Comment [HSB1]: What factors? Put them

into a table

a comprehensive review of the CRM literature; Wilson and McDonald (1996)
review success factors for marketing decision support; and in a wide-ranging study,
Dutta (2000) examines emerging success factors in e-commerce – one area where a
comprehensive literature review could not be found. Wilson et al (2002) examines
the factors that influence the successful deployment of CRM applications, with
particular emphasis on those factors which are distinct from other areas of
application derived from five in-depth case studies. Below table are summarise
previous research on success factors for CRM implementation:
Table 2.2: Success factors for CRM implementation

10

Comment [HSB2]: Table


Source: Wilson et al., 2002
On the other hand, there are limited study about the barriers or obstacles when
implementing CRM. Bohling (2006) express an opinion that to help identify factors
that distinguish successes from failures, future data sets must also include failures.

Comment [HSB3]: What factors? Put them
into a table

Barriers factors of implementing CRM are often described as an inessential or
additional discussion about CRM implementation. For instance, Fazlzadeh et al. (2011)
determined that the most important barriers to small and medium-sized enterprises
(SMEs) in science and technology parks are poor communication, inadequate

Comment [HSB4]: What factors? Put them
into a table

supporting budgets and inefficiencies in business process. In other research, Bohling et
al. (2006) determinded the three most commonly cited roadblocks from the survey of

Comment [HSB5]: Table

101 US-based firms were lack of necessary resources, insufficient focus on change
management, and insufficient involvement of employees.
Table 2.3: Barriers factors identified by previous studies
Barriers factors

Bohlinng et Fazlzadeh
al.(2006)

al. (2011)

Poor communication

X

Inadequate supporting budgets

X

Inefficiencies in business process

X

Insufficient

focus

on

change

et

X

management
Insufficient

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involvement

of

X

employees.
Lack of necessary resource

X

(Source: The author)
2.4. Key antecedents of CRMapplicationimplementation
Relationship marketing
Relationship marketing(RM) has been introduced in the service marketing by
Leonard Berry in 1983. The focus of relationship marketing is to facilitate and
support the customers‘ consumption and usage processes throughout the

11


relationship, in which value for customers is created by the customers and in
interactions with the supplier or service provider (Seth & Parvatiyar, 1995).
Relationship marketing is a tactical implications in a firm (Gronnroos, 1997).
Armstrong and Kotler (2000) point out that relationship marketing is a relationship
process for creating, retaining, and enhancing mutual value between enterprises and
customers or other stakeholder groups.

12


Table 2.4: Transactional marketing vs CRM approach (Piccoli et al., 2003)

CRM differs from traditional marketing initiatives (Table 1), CRM also has

its roots in relationship marketing which is aimed at improving long run
profitability by shifting from transaction-based marketing, with its emphasis on
winning new customers, to customer retention through effective management of
customer relationships(Christopher et al., 1991).Landry (1998) defines relationship
marketing as a long-term database system application by an enterprise to understand
a

customer‘s

profile

and

further

develop

relationship

through

various

communication channels to deliver value and service. Additionally, RM
involvesbuilding long term interactive relationships, especially with customers,
which is the most important benefit for the organizations which have adopted this
concept (Webster, 1992). This is underlined by Gronroos (1991) who states that the
purpose of relationship marketing is to establish, maintain and enhance relationships
with customers and other partners. Communication with customer partners is
necessary process of relationship marketing. Having strong relationship marketing

helps in relationship development, fosters trust, and provides the information and
knowledge needed to undertake the cooperative and collaborative activities (Hajar
et al.,2014).
Knowledge management
In an organization knowledge management includes learning aboutcustomer
needs and wants, dissemination of this knowledge within theorganization (Sin et al.,
2005). CRM practice uses customer knowledge asa means for enhancing customer
relationships. CRM process can providean opportunity for companies to profiably
communicate with relevantcustomers(Plakoyiannaki & Saren, 2006). On the first

13


hand, knowledgeis viewed as one of the important and high valued organization
assetsfor an enterprise. Knowledge management capability has four factorssuch as
acquirement, transformation, application and protection. Onthe other hand
knowledge management has signifiant impaction tothe customer loyalty and
satisfaction (Wang et al., 2010). Figure 2.2 below shows the proposed framework
structure for KMS from Fteimi and Lehner(2014).

Figure 2.2. Knowledge Management System (Fteimi and Lehner, 2014)
Furthermore, knowledge management also followed the trend, with systems
commonly being defined as technologies that support four knowledge management
activities: knowledge creation, codifiation, transfer and application (Nevo & Chan,
2007). Although information and data management are important pillars of

14


knowledge management, knowledge management encompasses broader issues – in

particular, the creation of processes and behaviors that allow people to transform
information within the organization to create and share knowledge.
Technological CRM resources
In achieving successful CRM, organizations should go beyond theconception
of CRM as a set of technological solutions. A review ofdifferent studies, see
example (Chen & Popovich, 2003; Xu & Walton,2005; Zablah et al., 2004) reveals
three aspects of CRM technology- external operation with customers and facilitate a
two waycommunication, internal operations and to analyze data, informationand
disseminate the resulting knowledge throughout the organization.This definition,
which is based on META group segmentation, dividesCRM technologies into
collaborative, operational, and analyticalcategories.Technological resources has
reach across customer touch points such ase-mail, phone calls, fax and website
pages as channels by firms interactwith their customers (Payne & Frow, 2006).
Furthermore, operationalCRM technologies involve the Intranet and Extranet to link
variousapplications and systems together in order to make the information
andknowledge available at all touch points within the firm and betweenthe firm and
its business partners (Xu & Walton, 2005). Hence, it‘s muchimportance to enhance
the customer experience, moreover various available channels to improve the
strength of business customerrelationships (Hamid & Kassim, 2004).Peppard
(2000) suggests that technological advances in global networks,convergence and
improved interactivity, are key to explaining thegrowth of e-business and CRM.
Technology has been acknowledged asan element towards the success of CRM
(Kubi & Doku, 2010) to achievethe customer profitability.
Motivation of Innovation
Forces of change and critical role of top management team
From 1999, McGrath et al. cited that companies are experiencing significant
pressures from increased levels of competition, rapidly changing market
requirements, higher rates of technical obsolescence, shorter product life-cycles and
the heightened importance of meeting the needs of increasingly sophisticated

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