استفاده از معیارهای بازاریابی: پیش بینی و پیامدهای آن برای مدیریت ارتباط با مشتری (CRM)

This research aims to determine the conditions that foster use of marketing metrics in customer relationship management (CRM) and identify the organizational factors that strengthen/weaken the impact of usage of marketing metrics on CRM performance. Based on the customer value-based theory of the firm and the contingency perspective, a research framework was developed to shed light on the predictor roles of customer value-based organizational culture and processes in determining usage of marketing metrics, and foster an understanding of the moderating roles of marketing-supply chain conflict, and innovative value proposition on the marketing metric-performance relationships. Empirical evidence from a sample of 209 business firms confirmed the main effect that customer value-based organizational culture and processes support a firm's use of marketing metrics that in turn enhance its CRM performance. Notable moderating effects were also identified. Although marketing-supply chain conflict weakens the impact of marketing metrics usage in achieving superior CRM performance, innovative value proposition strengthens the conversion of marketing-metric-related knowledge into superior CRM performance.

Marketing metrics have received substantial attention from both managers and scholars in recent years. From a managerial perspective, top management increasingly calls for “marketing accountability” pressuring marketers to produce metrics that document marketing's ROI. From an academic perspective, the growing interest in marketing metrics can be attributable to five theoretical angles (Ambler, 2003). First, in line with control theory which suggests the need for ex-post information on marketing programs as an essential part of the cycle of analysis, planning, implementation and control ( Jaworski, 1988 and Kotler, 2003), marketing metrics are used to evaluate past performance to improve future strategy and execution. Second, in keeping with agency theory that focuses on contract between a principle and an agent and the need for ex-post data on the extent to which the principal's objectives have been met (Jensen & Meckling, 1976), marketing metrics could be used to document enforcement of the contract between corporate and functional (e.g. marketing) management (Ambler, Barwise, & Higson, 2001). Third, reinforcing the wider quest for a balanced scorecard of performance (Kaplan & Norton, 1996) which puts emphasis on such intangible assets as brand equity that account for a large and increasing proportion of shareholder value, marketing metrics are used to measure its various dimensions. Fourth, consistent with the literature on market orientation ( Jaworski & Kohli, 1993, July and Narver & Slater, 1990, October) that argues for the need of market sensing and appropriate cross-functional responsiveness to the resulting data, marketing metrics are part of ‘marketing sensing’. Finally, as marketing metrics become more widespread among firms, institutional theory (Meyer & Rowan, 1977) suggests that their use will become an institutional norm. Nonetheless, despite the growing recognition of the strategic importance of marketing metrics, most marketing metrics have yet to be shown to be associated with current and future financial performance (Lehmann, 2002). Marketing metrics, which is the focus of this study, refers to gathering of data on marketing campaigns, channels, treatments and customer responses in order to track the effectiveness of customer relationship management (CRM) activities (Hirschowitz, 2001). Operationally, the present study focused on how firms used marketing metrics as tools for customer relationship management in the trade show context. The rationale for selecting trade shows as its research context rested firmly on the nature of trade shows, and can be traced back to the various roles and activities played by trade shows over managing key customer relationships. By nature, “trade shows are market events of a specific duration, held at intervals, at which a large number of companies present the main product range of one or more industry sectors and mainly sell it on the basis of samples” (UFI, 2008). At a system level, the success of a trade show demands the support of a whole industry, whose players must be willing to accept the show as a valid forum for establishing and cultivating business relationships. At an interaction level, since the true value of trade shows stems from its aid to relationship development between buyers and sellers (Rice, 1992), the present study sees individual trade shows as good venues for carrying out research about firms' activities tasked with the objectives of developing and maintaining customer relationships. Apart from the nature of trade shows as platforms for buyer–seller interactions, its various roles and functions in managing customer relationships also make it an appropriate context for studying the practice of marketing metrics in aid of CRM. Fundamentally, trade shows are important relationship learning programs (Li, 2006 and Rosson & Seringhaus, 1995), whereby exhibitors deliberately develop learning relationships with visitors to collect, disseminate and use the newly obtained customer information from trade shows in order to meet the customers' changing needs over time, and increase the return on trade show information (Bettis-Outland, Cromartie, Johnston, & Borders, 2010). Procedurally, effective participation in trade show counts not only on the preceding stages of establishing show objectives, pre-show planning, at-show implementation, and post-show follow up activities, but also hinges on the evaluation stage (Tanner, 2002). The feedback from evaluation should inform the next event participation process staring from the setting of show objectives (Fu, Yang, & Qi, 2007). The upgraded role of the evaluation stage over the whole trade show participation planning process reinforces the view of using various indices and marketing metrics when addressing marketing accountability. More specifically, as a form of live communication, trade shows play a major role over integrative marketing communication in real time. By giving the target group a personal encounter, a hands-on experience of the company and its brands in a stage-managed and emotional setting, trade shows are particularly instrumental in engendering unique lasting memories and better suited to fostering and sustaining customer loyalty (Kirchgeorg, Springer, & Kastner, 2010). Finally, functioning as a major element of key account management (KAM), trade shows have a pivotal role to play in solving specific problems that arise at different stages of relationship development between firms in a dyadic KAM scenario (Blythe, 2002). In view of the nature and various functions of trade shows over development of customer relationships, the current study takes advantage of the research opportunities offered by trade shows to examine the practice of marketing metrics and its impact on CRM. Two themes in the literature of CRM are of particular relevance to this research: knowledge of the antecedents of CRM effort and the conclusions that have so far been drawn about the impact of CRM effort on performance of CRM programs. With regard to antecedents that may influence level of CRM effort, organizational characteristics consisting of culture, configuration, and strategy have been reported. Taking the organizational culture perspective, previous researchers have identified market orientation as a critical predictor of marketing metrics (Ambler & Wang, 2003 and Kokkinaki & Ambler, 1999). Adopting the organizationally embedded view of marketing, some scholars (Jarachandran, Sharma, Kaufman, & Raman, 2005) reported customer-centric management system as a very significant factor affecting use of (relational) information in managing CRM programs. Using an innovation adoption perspective, other investigators (Ko, Kim, Kim, & Woo, 2008) revealed very powerful impact of such organizational characteristics as prospective strategy and information system maturity on the CRM adoption process. However, a key problem with the existent approach is that firms fail to recognize individual key customers in their own context. Despite the promise and potential benefit of customizing offerings based on knowledge of individual customers, much CRM remains focused on market segmentation (Mitussis, O'Malley, & Patterson, 2006) and much of the practices of CRM remains rooted in the mix management paradigm (Gordon, 2000). Given the growing importance of the customer value perspective which argues that customers choose continuing relationships with those suppliers that consistently offer higher value (Wang, Lo, Chi, & Yang, 2004), this study argued for a customer-focused approach to engage strategically important key accounts in value-creating CRM activities. In keeping with a customer value-based theory of the firm (Slater, 1997), this study aims to extend the existent literature by examining the relationship between marketing metrics and two key factors namely: customer value-based organizational culture and processes. With respect to the impact of using marketing metrics to keep track of marketing effectiveness, two competing models have emerged: those that suggest a direct relationship and those that propose a moderated relationship. Whereas Ambler and Kokkinaki (1997) have found a significant positive relationship between perceived importance of marketing metrics and business performance in United Kingdom, the UK relationship between use of metrics and business performance was not replicated in China (Ambler & Wang, 2003). Although Jarachandran et al. (2005) reported that technology used for CRM can strengthen the effect of relational information processes on CRM performance, Reinartz, Krafft, and Hoyer (2004) did not detect any moderating effect of CRM technology use on the relationship between CRM processes and CRM performance. These conflicting evidences highlight the need for more research in this area. Accordingly, this study aims to determine whether the relationship between usage of marketing metrics and CRM performance is contingent upon implementation context. In addressing the performance consequences of using marketing metrics, this study proposed that implementation barrier in terms of conflicting perspective between supply-chain-management and customer-relationship-management regarding goals and tasks for CRM would hinder the firm's deployment of the acquired marketing metrics information, and lead to mismatch between what is needed by customers and what is offered by the firm. In contrast, implementation facilitator in terms of coordinated deployment of the acquired marketing-metrics-information to understand the needs and behavior of customer and develop and offer customer-focused value propositions is needed to actualize the full benefits of CRM. The first objective of this study is to investigate the direct effect of customer value-based organizational culture and processes on usage of marketing metrics. A second objective is to examine whether some firms are more effective than others in deploying marketing-metrics information to achieve higher levels of CRM performance. The outcomes of these objectives will have important implications for managers who are tasked with identifying the drivers that assist firms to better leverage their capabilities. The remainder of this paper is organized as follows. Section 2 reviews the literature on conceptualizations of marketing metrics. The conceptual model is proposed and described in Section 3. The data collection and analyses are discussed in 4 and 5, and the managerial and research implications are presented in Section 6.

This study provides a two-stage framework. In the first stage, a customer value-based theory of the firm (Slater, 1997) is applied to build a systematic research model that relates customer value-based organizational culture, customer value-based organizational process, and usage of marketing metrics to CRM performance. Empirical analysis across a sample of 209 manufacturing organizations confirms that customer value-based culture and process lead to greater usage of marketing metrics, which in turn enhance the achievement of objectives set for CRM programs. In the second stage, the contingency perspective is used as a basis for the introduction of additional intervening variables into the model. It is argued that both barrier and facilitator variables have critical and distinct roles over CRM implementation when firms exploiting their cultural, organizational and informational processes to attain superior CRM performance. The empirical findings confirm that although conflicts between marketing and supply chain functions weaken the impact of marketing metrics usage in achieving superior CRM performance, innovative value propositions strengthen the conversion of marketing-metric-related knowledge into superior CRM performance. 6.1. Implications for managers A number of practical lessons can be drawn from the current findings. Since customer value-based organizational culture is positively associated with usage of marketing metrics, a key implication of this study is that business managers should assess whether the firm's values, beliefs and philosophical orientation underlying its CRM program is consistent with the demands of using marketing metrics. The firm's employees should be motivated to develop and maintain a customer value-based orientation. Specifically, internal marketing efforts in terms of market training and education, internal communication, reward systems, and employee involvement should be used to promote a customer value-based orientation among salespeople and other frontline staff that are the firm's key interface with its customers (Yim, 2002 and Zikmund et al., 2003). With the foundation of a customer value-based orientation that focused on key customers, employees can make use of marketing metrics to provide customized goods and services and maximize customers' lifetime values. Given customer value-based organizational process is positively associated with usage of marketing metrics, another major insight here is that organizational processes and activities underlying CRM should be designed carefully. Structurally, the firm should be organized around customer groups to ensure alignment of all involved organizational resources for fulfillment of customer needs (Yim et al., 2004). Besides, the incentives system should be designed to provide rewards for retention of key customers through CRM activities (Rigby, Reichheld, & Schefter, 2002) so as to reinforce CRM-oriented conduct and behaviors (Johnson, 2004). The present results, however, suggest that use of marketing metrics for CRM is recommendable only when marketing-supply chain conflicts have been minimized. Hence, business managers should recognize that generation of market knowledge via marketing metrics in itself is not enough since an intense level of coordination is called for when firms seek to build up business relationships with key accounts (Wengler, Ehret, & Saab, 2006). On a constructive light, the firm should develop and maintain effective coordination between marketing and supply chain functions that is required for proper usage of relational information when developing innovative value propositions to address dynamic market needs (Slater, 1997). Furthermore, in keeping with Blythe's suggestion (2002) of using trade shows for key accounts management, the current findings have important implications for business managers who use trade shows to further develop relationships with key customers. In general the effectiveness of trade fairs and exhibitions in managing key accounts will depend on the institutionalization of an organizational culture of focusing on value creation for key customers through one-on-one marketing efforts, and the design of an organizational structure and incentive system that support its implementation. In particular, the effectiveness of using trade shows to manage key accounts will also depend on the alignment between marketing and supply chain functions whereby senior management's commitment for CRM will be enforced through the integration of demand and supply processes, and the information captured by marketing metrics will be used for developing innovative value offerings to address dynamic market needs. 6.2. Limitations and directions for future research The implications of this study should be seen within the context of its limitations that could also provide the basis for directing future research. First, in this study, the customer value-based theory of the firm is applied to identify some broadly measured cultural and organizational antecedents of marketing metrics, and it is empirically confirmed that different characteristics of a customer value-focused firm affect usage of marketing metrics. Future research could expand the predictor set by following different theoretical perspectives that shed further light on the antecedents of marketing metrics (Ambler et al., 2004). For instance, agency theory might be extended from corporate management to marketing management to enable formal hypothesis testing in the context of marketing metrics (Barwise & Farley, 2004). Second, based on the contingency perspective, this study identifies and empirically confirms the moderating role of certain implementation barrier and facilitator factors in the marketing metrics-CRM performance relationship. In line with the contingency perspective, future research could use other variables to define the implementation context in which the effect of marketing metrics takes place. An internal marketing perspective suggests that implementation barriers range from operational/analytical barriers in terms of shortage of resources, costs and expertise, to behavioral/organizational barriers in terms of politics and culture of the organization relating to customers as a kind of asset (Piercy, 1995). Future research should consider investigating the relative adverse effect of operational barriers versus political barriers over linkage between marketing metrics and CRM performance. Finally, a third limitation of this study concerns with its measurement approach. The use of cross-sectional survey method in this study only provided a snapshot of the cultural, organizational, and informational processes when the firm used marketing metrics for managing its key customer accounts. This measurement approach did not consider the specific problems of specific key customer accounts, and hence failed to address how collection and deployment of marketing metrics at an individual account level serve to come up with innovative value propositions for the account under investigation. Perhaps, a quasi-longitudinal study is useful whereby future research can examine specific problems that arise at different stages of relationship development between supplier and buyer firms in a dyadic KAM scenario. By measuring an individual key customer's responses to specific value propositions, marketing metrics might establish “product need” for those accounts at the pre-KAM stage; identify “process-related problems” for those customers at the early KAM stage; and facilitate “value creation” for those key accounts on partnership KAM stage via strategic alignment of objectives, systems and processes with the buyer partner firm. Additional study is very much encouraged to examine the role of relationship stage played in research modeling impact of marketing metrics on CRM performance.