An opportunity to customer relationship management? A review-based analysis of success factors and success effect

Abstract

In the age of virtualisation and globalisation, customer relationship management (CRM) increasingly utilises new media for advertisement, customer contact, data management, servicing and sales. However, the opportunities, risks and success factors of the application of these new technologies have not been comprehensively explored to date. The study systematises new media technologies for CRM in the form of a review and differentiates and synthesises new mediabased opportunities, risks and success factors in CRM referring to the corporate value-added process. It draws upon Kim, Zhao and Yang’s (2008) and Kim and Kim’s (2009) earlier research and extends the framework based upon a more extensive literature review, adapting it to new media applications. Success effects of new media usage at the shareholder and customer level are elaborated. Therefore, this work provides academic research with a theoretically-founded classification system for new media research that is applicable to CRM and neighbouring study fields. Practitioners can also apply the category set to revise and organise their CRM strategy regarding the technological options of new media. The study is the theoretical and structural foundation to a planned empirical study on the success effects of new media in CRM.