Intra- and inter-organizational effects of a CRM system implementation

Journal title MERCATI E COMPETITIVITÀ
Author/s Enrico Baraldi, Antonella La Rocca, Andrea Perna
Publishing Year 2013 Issue 2013/1
Language English Pages 22 P. 13-34 File size 1559 KB
DOI 10.3280/MC2013-001003
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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the intra- and inter-organizational effects of introducing a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system in a firm. Today, CRM appears to be a "buzzword" in the academic literature and it can be analysed under different and sometimes divergent perspectives. We define CRM as a technical device interacting with people who input data and information inside an IT system to obtain processed information in order to handle customer relationships. Empirically, we explore the implementation of a CRM system in an Italian company. Our findings suggest that the installation of a CRM system is not a linear process because of the problems that surface when the technology is embedded within an organization. We identify two main issues users face in employing the CRM system: 1) loss of independence, 2) the feeling of being controlled, with an accompanying mistrust of data inputs from other users in the same host organization.

Keywords: CRM, business relationships, resource interaction, embedding, implementation, case study

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Enrico Baraldi, Antonella La Rocca, Andrea Perna, Intra- and inter-organizational effects of a CRM system implementation in "MERCATI E COMPETITIVITÀ" 1/2013, pp 13-34, DOI: 10.3280/MC2013-001003