بررسی تأثیر مدیریت دانش در موفقیت مدیریت ارتباط با مشتریان (CRM) : اثرات واسطه عوامل سازمانی

Customer relationship management (CRM) and knowledge management (KM) have become key strategic tool for all companies, especially in the current competitive environment. Moreover, customer knowledge is an important issue for CRM implementation. Reviewing the literature, we found many studies that analyze the crucial role played by KM initiatives as determinants of the success of CRM. Moreover, we found also diverse studies that show high rates of failure when implementing that strategy, so there is still no integrated conceptual framework to guide companies to their successful implementation. In this paper, with data of 153 Spanish hotels, we examine the relationships between KM and CRM success using a structural equation model. The main contribution is that having knowledge management capabilities is not sufficient for the success of CRM, but there are other factors to consider. In particular, organizational factors indeed impact CRM success and they appear to be intermediaries of the impact of other factors (KM capabilities/technological/customer orientation factors) in the success of CRM (in financial and marketing terms).

Currently, knowledge society or knowledge-based economy is characterized by factors such as increased competitiveness, technological innovation and the global nature of markets (Castells, 1998). In this society, companies should pay attention preferred to knowledge when conducting its business as it becomes a key factor on which to build a competitive advantage (Beijerse, 1999 and Salmador and Bueno, 2007). Moreover, in recent years, knowledge is being considered as a critical organizational resource and there is growing interest in this concept (Alavi and Leidner, 2001 and Drucker, 1993). That is why KM is becoming a research priority by the academic community (Salmador & Bueno, 2007), and one of the areas that companies are allocating a greater share of spending for its implementation (Beijerse, 1999 and Call, 2005).

Results of the empirical test of the model confirm the fundamental role of the organizational factors (aspects to do with the leadership of the top management, human resource management, functional integration, and organizational structure) in the implementation of CRM. Although the literature has emphasized the role of KM as the key determinant of CRM success, according to our analysis, the organizational variables are the real antecedent of it, since they mediate the effect of the rest of the variables (including KM capabilities, technological and customer orientation factors) on CRM success. These findings show that even if the firm carries out KM initiatives, acquires the most advanced technology and tries to generate a customer-centric orientation, if these initiatives are not integrated into the organization, the firm does not redesign its organizational structure or processes, organization members do not all participate in the project, and change is not lead appropriately, the implementation of CRM will not be successful.