Mobile customer relationship management : An explorative investigation of the italian consumer market

Mobile customer relationship management (CRM) services seem to have all the characteristics commonly associated with successful mobile services and have accordingly been predicted to be among the most promising. However, real development of this sector has not been well explored so far, especially in relation to the actual supply of mobile CRM services to the public. The purpose of this paper is to reduce this gap by giving a first snapshot of the current development of the supply of mobile CRM services to consumers taken in the context of the Italian market. In order to do so, it firstly proposes a conceptual framework indicating the relevant aspects to investigate for assessing this kind of environments: the market, value propositions, actors and issues. Then it applies this framework to get an overview of the supply of mobile CRM services in Italy and provides some empirical insight about its current development obtained through an exhaustive survey of the current supply of 750 services from 353 firms

Chapter 9: Building an Iron-Clad Supplier Diversity Program

There are critical issues identified with reconciling parity in supplier diversity initiatives. Supplier diversity programs (SDP) are an instrument utilized to facilitate the process. This endeavor analyzes the best techniques to develop diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) strategy to develop manufacturing suppliers. Moreover, quality control frameworks for developing supplier diversity programs in manufacturing necessitates strategic planning, which is necessary to support supplier diversity initiatives. For instance, questions that supplier diversity managers must ask include, Does the company have an existing minority supplier program? If so, what are its pros, cons, and evaluative measures? If not, why hasn’t there been a supplier diversity program or why is it now defunct? Moreover, supplier diversity managers must develop, safeguard, and sustain supplier diversity programs by gaining support from leadership, create policy (institutionalize), and tie the SDP to organizational performance metrics

A Survey on Evaluating and Realizing IS/IT Benefits in Taiwanese B2BEC Companies

A number of issues have emerged from the analysis of the data collected via a survey conducted in Taiwanese B2BEC companies. The results show relatively high usage of IS/IT investment evaluation and benefits realization methodologies, and yet, these methodologies were generally not used effectively within the responding organizations. Most of these organizations were not yet mature in terms of their IT. However, there was a clear association between level of IT maturity and both wide and effective use of methodologies for IS/IT investment evaluation and benefits management

Consumer Life Cycle and Profiling: A Data Mining Perspective

With the development of technology and continuously increasing of the market demand, the concept to produce better merchandises is generated in the companies. Each customer wants an individual approach or exclusive product, which creates the concept: “one customer one product.” The implementation of the one-to-one approach in the current days is the main exciting task of companies. Millions of customers lead to millions of exclusive products from the manufactures’ views. It is the primary step to study the needs of customers in the market economy. The main task for a company is to know the customer and to provide their desired products and services. In order to get knowledge ahead of the customers’ wishes, a system of profiling potential customers is created accordingly. This chapter provides the review of the customer lifetime from the reach customer (claim future customer’s attention) to the loyalty customer (turn a customer into a company advocate). During the discussion about the customer lifetime, readers will get acquainted with such technologies as funnel analysis, data management platform, customer profiling, customer behavior analysis, and others. The listed technologies in a complex will be created as the one-to-one product or service with a high Return on Investment (ROI)

The Antecedents of Customer Relationship Management and Impact on Hotels Performance in Jordan

The last decade has seen the emergence of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) as a technique to underpin organizational performance improvement in improving customer retention, customer satisfaction, and customer value. However, evidence suggests that many CRM initiatives fail to achieve desired results. Furthermore, empirical research is still scarce.In recent years, CRM has been the favored theme for numerous studies and reports. It has also been considered as a way of capturing comparative advantages in the face of the growing competition. However, despite many studies conducted on CRM in various industries in the past 20 years, there is still significant disagreement about its definition and meaning, and the framework for the effective implementation and evaluation of CRM practice. Moreover, there is a lack of systematic empirical evidence regarding the success factors of the CRM performance, and its impact on organizational performance. To address these issues, this study examines the degree of CRM performance of hoteliers as well as the relationship between CRM performance and organizational performance. Furthermore, this research also investigated the influence of organizational and technological factors on CRM performance. In this quantitative study, a total of 98 Jordanian hotels participated by voluntarily completing the survey questionnaire, constituting an overall 49% response rate. From the analysis undertaken, it was found that the CRM performance of the respondents were at moderate degree. The research results indicated that CRM performance has a positive influence on organizational performance. Four major factors were found to have significant influence on CRM performance namely top management, customer data, customer information processing, and CRM functionality. On the other hand, factors such as customer orientation, training orientation, and data integration were not significantly related to CRM performance. Theoretical implications and managerial implications of these findings are discussed

Framing static and dynamic time-periods through the teleological lens in the implementation process of Enterprise Resource Planning

Purpose Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is a technological tool which improves and eases B to B communication and reinforces business relationships as well as business-to-business (B to B) marketing. Based on a teleological lens in B to B relationships between ERP sellers and ERP buyers, the research objective of this study is to frame static and dynamic time-frames in the ERP implementation process in B to B markets. The aim is to shed light on the consideration of time-periods (i.e. past, present and future) as either tatic or dynamic in the implementation process of complex service solutions, such as ERP, in a B to B marketing setting. Design/methodology/approach This study is conducted with respect to Spanish companies focusing on the first main pre-implementation, first main implementation and first main post-implementation process of ERP software solutions in B to B markets. This study embraces a multi-method design consisting of the four phases. It enables data triangulation through in-depth structured interviews in a follow-up study, so as to validate the results. Findings Reports static and dynamic time-periods through a teleological lens in the implementation process of ERP in B to B market of the Spanish healthcare industry. This study indicates that more than half of the ERP buyers were not entirely satisfied, after finalizing the ERP implementation process. Subsequently, less than half of them received only a software solution and the rest considered they had received merely a somewhat adapted software solution. Furthermore, only one out of ten confirmed that the software solution obtained was a fully adapted solution beyond the ERP buyers’ expectations and truly taking into account their needs. This study also reveals that there are still some ERP implementation processes indicating that the seller does not take into account the needs of the buyer at all. Altogether, the findings indicate that the B to B marketing process is often not satisfactory. It is widely known that the ERP is a standardized tool that requires adaptation of the ERP software solution to the buyer’ in B to B markets. Research limitations/implications The combination of static and dynamic considerations of time with formative, rationalist and transformative teleological lenses outline and distinguish between various strategies for handling the ERP pre-implementation process, the ERP implementation process and the ERP post-implementation process in B to B marketing. We contend that another core research implication in B to B marketing, taking into consideration static and dynamic time-periods through the teleological lens, addresses the need to match the ERP seller perspective with that of the ERP buyer. A mismatch may turn out unsatisfactorily for both the ERP seller and the ERP buyer. It is therefore crucial in the B to B marketing strategy that there be a balance between flexibility and adaptations of the ERP seller to the expectations and experiences of the ERP buyer in the ERP implementation processes in B to B markets. Managerial implications Offers opportunities for companies to apply B to B marketing strategies through visualizing in advance the cost and risk associated with an ERP implementation. Furthermore, this study enables the framing of other complex service implementation processes such as the ERP software solution. A core managerial implication of the results reported in this study to B to B marketing is the need to distinguish between static and dynamic, using the time-periods in the ERP implementation. The ERP seller needs to align its strategy of B to B marketing with its consequences from the ERP pre- and post-implementation processes. Another core managerial implication is that the static and formative use of time entails less costs initially. It enables the ERP seller to obtain benefits within a short time-frame. However, the ERP seller may have to face a dissatisfied ERP buyer at the end of the implementation process. Subsequently, the risk of the relationship disruption is high, so that this strategy of B to B marketing has a short-time orientation, based on targeting many ERP buyers and devoting less effort to each of them (by the ERP seller). In the case of the dynamic and rationalist use of time-periods, the ERP seller has chosen a strategy of B to B marketing with the ERP buyer that can turn out satisfactorily. However, the initial costs are higher than when the static consideration of time is used because the ERP seller needs more resources, expertise and skills to visualize the end of the implementation process taking into account the actual requirements. Originality/value Frames static and dynamic time-periods which influence the B to B marketing strategy used in the implementation process of ERP in the healthcare industry. The teleological lens applied in this study contributes to contextualizing as marketing B to B tool the ERP implementation process as being either past-based (formative), present-based (transformative) or future-based (rationalist

Personalized services: Competitive advantage in the portuguese retail banking market

Durante as últimas duas décadas, o mundo empresarial sofreu mudanças significativas relativamente à tecnologia, pensamento de marketing, comportamento do consumidor, entre outras. Na nova abordagem de marketing, também conhecida como marketing relacional, o consumidor é o foco da empresa. Fornecer a melhor experiência de um produto ou serviço, tornou-se no objectivo principal das empresas. Criar e desenvolver relações com o cliente é o centro do marketing relacional. De forma a criar e desenvolver estas relações, as empresas recorrem a estratégias de Customer Relationship Management. A personalização é uma ferramenta de CRM que ajuda as empresas a criar relações de longo prazo com os seus clientes a um nível pessoal. As empresas recorrem a métodos de personalização para transformar um simples produto ou serviço numa solução personalizada, indo de encontro às expectativas do cliente, criando valor percebido, gerando satisfação e desenvolvendo uma atitude positiva em relação à empresa. Assim sendo, a personalização é considerada como um estímulo de fidelização e de vantagem competitiva. No sector bancário português, caracterizado pela intensificação da recessão económica em que Portugal vive actualmente e pela emergência de diversos novos bancos que utilizam estratégias agressivas de angariação de clientes, pode a personalização dos serviços bancários gerar a satisfação dos clientes, fidelidade e, consequentemente, vantagem competitiva? Após a análise dos dados recolhidos através de um questionário e da verificação das hipóteses, conclui-se que a personalização dos serviços bancários não é suficiente para ser considerada como um elemento de vantagem competitiva, quando a concorrência é agressiva.For the past two decades, the business world has witnessed significant changes regarding technology, marketing thinking, consumer behavior, among others. In the new marketing approach, also known as relational marketing, the customer is the focus of the company. Providing the best experience of a certain product or service has become the companies’ main goal. Creating and developing relationships with the customers is the core of relational marketing. In order to create and develop these relationships, companies use Customer Relationship Management strategies. Personalization is a CRM strategy tool that helps companies create long term relationships with their customers on an individual basis. Companies are using personalization processes to transform a simple product or service into a customized solution for customers, meeting their expectations, creating perceived product value, satisfaction and a positive attitude towards the company. On this note, personalization is considered to stimulate customer loyalty and generate competitive advantage. In the Portuguese retail banking market, characterized by the intensification of economic recession that Portugal is living and by the emergence of several new banks that use aggressive strategies for customer acquisition, can the personalization of the bank’s services develop customer satisfaction, loyalty and, consequently, competitive advantage? After analyzing the data gathered through a questionnaire and the verification of the hypothesis, the investigation concluded that the personalization of the banking services is not enough to be considered as competitive advantage, when the competition is aggressive

CRM strategies: an approach to Lidl, Sonae and Jerónimo Martins firms

Business is in a constant race to reduce cost and increase revenues, to ensure current, new and future customers, avoiding at any cost competitors. One of the several instrument define to assist in the interaction among the supplier and customers is CRM, Customer Relationship Management Strategies. It aims to develop individual lasting relationships, ensuring costumers keep coming back, impacting both parties in a positive way. The main purpose of the thesis is to support a better understanding on the multiple CRM strategies. To ensure the successfulness of the study the study firsts purposes two question collected from the literature review, in which the thesis will be focused on. The three central areas for the study are: the objectives, strategy and method. Using collected theory from literature, a frame of reference based on three firms, Lidl, Sonae & Jerónimo Martins, will be compared to each other theory and strategies. The statements that arise from the study go in concordance with the explored literature, however, the study specifies main CRM strategies that lack of research in the areas corresponding to CRM. Moreover it indicates that CRM impact customers and firms.O mundo dos negócios encontra-se numa constante corrida associada a uma necessidade de redução de costos e aumento das receitas, de forma a garantir os atuais, futuros e possíveis clientes. Um dos muitos instrumentos, de referência aquando da interação entre o vendedor e o consumidor é a Gestão da relação pessoal com o cliente, respetivamente o CRM. Tem como objetivo fulcral o desenvolvimento de relações duradouras, garantindo o retorno dos clientes, traduzindo-se num impacto positivo para ambas. O principal foco da presente tese, é a de servir de suporte a um melhor entendimento das mais variadas estratégias de CRM. De forma a garantir o seu sucesso, o estudo, primeiramente surge com duas questões principais, reunidas através da revisão da literatura. Os três pontos centrais assentam nos objetivos, estratégia e metodologia. Priorizando informação recolhida da extensa literatura, e três empresas selecionadas para estudo, Lidl, Sonae & Jerónimo Martins, finalizando com a análise comparativa entre os dois métodos. As afirmações reunidas ao longo do estudo seguem em concordância com a revisão da literatura, todavia, há porém uma quebra na informação referente a área do CRM. Posteriormente o estudo faz referência aos impactos que o CRM tem na empresa e cliente