Strategic entrepreneurship: an integrated innovative entrepreneurial process for CRM implementation at Indian SMEs

The purpose of this theoretical framework is, to provide a better understanding of the prospects, process, problems, usage and issues related to Customer Relationship Management (CRM) in Indian SMEs so that it may help to implement, adopt and use CRM as an interactive entrepreneurial tool for strategic and successful customer relationship management at Indian SMEs. To reach this understanding this research can starts with three dimensions or group of respondents like CRM Vendor (CRM professionals, academics and experts), CRM Client/ CRM Customer (Indian SMEs, Indian entrepreneur) and CRM Beneficiary (regular customer/ consumer/ buyer/ common men). Based on the developed theory and literature review research questions can be answered to achieve this purpose (understanding). The major area of concern for all three group of respondents can be CRM (Awareness, Interest level), CRM (Planning, Strategy level), CRM Expectation (Objectives, Need level), CRM Implementation level, CRM Adoption and Updating (Maintenance, Stabilization level ), CRM Measurement (Satisfaction, Feedback level), CRM Challenge (Problem, Issue, Risk, Disadvantages level), CRM Deliverables (Benefits, Advantages level ), CRM Control level and CRM Forecasting (Future Prospects, R&D, Improvements level) levels for the successful CRM implementation, adoption and usage at Indian SMEs. Using the developed theory and literature review about these research objectives, a framework of the reference can be developed to collect the information from three different groups of respondents. These groups can be studied through Case analysis and BBP (Best Business Practice) Survey. Primary data can be collected from Semi Structured Questionnaire (Based on open ended as well as close ended questions), Semi Structure Interview supported by Content Analysis and Grounded Theory

Innovating the delivery of individual services within Flemish cities: inventory of ICT-driven heterogeneity

Flemish cities are setting up large scale reform trajectories to make their transactional service delivery more customer orientated, customer friendly and integrated. The implementation of new ICTs plays a key role in these innovation processes; there seems to be a great, technological deterministic, belief in the possibilities offered by for example mid office technologies. In this paper, we explore and compare such innovation trajectories within two Flemish cities. We describe the context, the object, the process and the evaluation of change. Based on this inductive analysis, we reflect upon the dependent and independent variables that structure the processes of change. We make use of a ‘neo-institutional theoretical lens’ to identify relevant internal and external institutional factors that shape the implementation context for the organizational changes. The analysis generates interesting findings. Whereas the external environment to a large degree functions as a stable variable, the heterogeneity between both cities is much more determined by the organizational ‘path’, i.e. the management model, capacities, subcultures, existing ICT-infrastructure, etc. Further research is needed as important questions remain unanswered. For example: does the mixed set of organizational, technological and cultural changes also actually produces the outcomes that were formulated in terms of both increased effectiveness and efficiency

The Internet's Effects on Global Production Networks: Challenges and Opportunities for Managing in Developing Asia

Placing global production networks (GPN) on the Internet poses a fundamental challenge, but also creates new opportunities for managing in Developing Asia. Network flagships can now select best-performing suppliers on a global scale, increasing the pressure on Asian suppliers. But the transition form EDI to the Internet may also provide new opportunities for Asian suppliers, by reducing barriers to network entry, and by enhancing knowledge diffusion. A conceptual framework is introduced to assess how the Internet reshapes business organization and GPN. That framework is applied to one of the role models of managing in Asia, Taiwan's Acer Group. The paper highlights a vicious circle that must be broken to reap the benefits of the Internet: Asian firms must reduce a huge efficiency gap between manufacturing and the management of supporting digital information systems (DIS). The challenge is to embrace the Internet as flexible infrastructures that support not only information exchange, but also knowledge sharing, creation and utilization. The Internet facilities this task: it provides new opportunities for the outsourcing of mission-critical support services.

A Model for Understanding the Market Orientation Effects of CRM on the Organizational Process

To build an understanding of the impacts of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) on organizational behaviors and processes this study strives to develop a model of CRM effects on work practice, value-creation processes and organizational performance. Moderating factors that affect the transition results are also studied. The model is developed by iterative steps of content analysis. The objectives of building this model are: 1) to establish a framework with propositions about the chained effects of CRM on organizational performance and the influential management activities and 2) to develop a measurement instrument of the CRM effects on market-oriented behaviors and performance. Although the model testing and enhancement are in progress, the preliminary findings reveal that behavioral changes towards market-orientation can be reflected in two levels of work practice: coordinated intelligence management in the team work and proactive attitude with individuals. With such a market-oriented focus, CRM user organizations are more likely to develop positive market performance as well as process performance, and indirectly bring up financial performance

CRM in Russia and U.S. -- Case Study from American Financial Service Industry

This paper discusses Customer Relationship Management in two sharply contrasting business cultures: the United States and Russia. Included in the present work is a case study of a midsized American financial services firm that illustrates a common path to the decision to have a CRM system: the planning, selection, and the implementation of the CRM program, including a discussion of the likelihood of success. The clients in this case are Financial Advisors, who in turn sell the investment products to the end user individual investors. CRM in Russia is yet in its infancy as the economy emerges from 200 years as a pure commodity economy with little customer service much less customer relationship management as part of management philosophy. The study concludes with implications and suggested research

Placing the Networks on the Web: Challenges and Opportunities for Managing in Developing Asia

Placing the networks on the Web poses a fundamental challenge, but also provides new opportunities for managing in Developing Asia. There is a huge efficiency gap between the region's manufacturing systems and the management of complementary, knowledge-intensive support services. The challenge is to reduce this gap as quickly as possible by embracing the Internet as a core business function, despite a weak base of accumulated knowledge of how to manage IT-based information systems. Asian companies, even the best, lag substantially behind their American and European counterparts. There is a potential vicious circle that needs to be broken: a belated transition to IT-based information systems has prevented the accumulation of knowledge, through trial-and-error, of how to design and implement an appropriate IT organization that reflects the peculiar strengths and weaknesses of diverse Asian management systems. Limited resources prevent any attempt to address these problems in a big leap forward. This implies that in-house efforts need to be supplemented with outsourcing of IT services. There is also a need for strategic partnering with major suppliers of Internet software and networking equipment. The opportunity is that the Internet provides almost unlimited opportunities for the outsourcing of mission-critical support services, such as ERP (enterprise resource planning), HRM (human resource management). Furthermore, fierce competition among major producers of Internet software and networking equipment has created a buyers' market - placing Asian firms in a reasonably strong bargaining position. These developments are generally not well covered by existing studies, which are primarily focused on developments in the U.S. and Europe. The paper tries to fill this gap, and explores how placing global production networks on the Web affects managing in Developing Asia. A conceptual framework is introduced in parts 1 to 3. That framework is then applied to one of the role models of managing in Asia, Taiwan's Acer Group. Part 1 introduces a taxonomy of expected benefits from Internet-enabled transformations of business organization. In part 2, we argue that the real issue is to analyze how the Internet reshapes the organization of global production networks. In part3, we access conflicting claims on how an increased use of the Internet to manage global production networks affects international knowledge diffusion. In part 4, the example of Taiwan's Acer Group is used to describe the challenge for Asian firms to embrace the Internet as a key management function. And in part 5, we ask what Acer's experience tells us about Developing Asia's opportunities.

Business Intelligence

Business intelligence systems combine operational data with analytical tools to present complex and competitive information to planners and decision makers. The objective is to improve the timeliness and quality of inputs to the decision process. Business Intelligence is used to understand the capabilities available in the firm; the state of the art, trends, and future directions in the markets, the technologies, and the regulatory environment in which the firm competes; and the actions of competitors and the implications of these actions. The emergence of the data warehouse as a repository, advances in data cleansing, increased capabilities of hardware and software, and the emergence of the web architecture all combine to create a richer business intelligence environment than was available previously. Although business intelligence systems are widely used in industry, research about them is limited. This paper, in addition to being a tutorial, proposes a BI framework and potential research topics. The framework highlights the importance of unstructured data and discusses the need to develop BI tools for its acquisition, integration, cleanup, search, analysis, and delivery. In addition, this paper explores a matrix for BI data types (structured vs. unstructured) and data sources (internal and external) to guide research