Exploring the Success Factors of Ecrm Strategies in Practice

¶ … eCRM Strategies

One of the more interesting tools of analysis used when dealing with marketing, business, or consumer issues is moving the learning dynamic from rote and informational (more quantitative) to more qualitative. There were several aspects to the assignment on eCRM strategies that were both exciting and contributed to a more robust learning environment:

Group Discussion -- teamwork was challenging because of different learning styles, but we discussed the various theories and methodologies that focused on key issues of the articles. The group discussions helped develop higher level thinking skills by exchanging disparate ideas and giving the other people in the group time to develop and verbalize their own views. It was difficult, with English as a second language, to present ideas clearly and to deliver a focused and understandable message. Asking questions, probing ideas, and working with the group solidified more communication skills and gave ideas on how best to present technical material.

Moving from Rote to Analysis and Synthesis -- A very typical way of both learning and studying has been to memorize materials by rote. This type of memorization lends itself to formulas, dates, and factual data, but really means very little outside of trivia games and certain specific knowledge areas. These assignments allowed for a move from simply acquiring knowledge for factual sake to taking those facts and synthesizing them with prior knowledge, analyzing the result, and coming up with new combinations that make more sense in the real world.

Globalization -- It is very clear that the modern business world if full of multinational organizations that have different ways of looking at business challenges, consumer behavior, and even organizational dynamics. These assignments helped in understanding the way that social and cultural differences can change both the business dynamic and expectation from the consumer. One can no longer look at the world in terms of regional dynamics, but instead, must use a broader brush stroke that factors in global diversity with global economic measures.

Vetting of Resources -- Using the Internet can be a challenging academic experience. Learning to verify sources and take a more critical eye towards bias, information quality, peer-reviewed journals, and even academic credentials is a bit more work at the front end of the project, but saves hours of time later when dealing with potentially conflictual information. Using Google scholar was also of tremendous help since many of the sources necessary to complete the assignments were hard to get in local libraries or, in the case of journal articles, difficult to find.

Techniques of Literature Review -- Literature reviews are not simply something to explore what scholars have said about a particular issue, but instead a way to get a sense of the issue by focusing on group thought and synthesis of the problem at hand. Literature reviews can easily be started within the article analysis itself, but soon one is branching out as one source leads to another and one index to another, etc. Continuing this technique will be essential in helping to broadly categorize and scan a large amount of material in order to become more familiar with what the generalizations already are within the field.

Examining methodology -- Instead of simply accepting the methodological constructs of the authors (Chen and Chen), it was necessary to review their own bias, sample, and methodology. Understanding where the authors developed their hypothesis and then working through how the set up scaffolding to prove it was a great experience in using disparate academic materials to buttress an argument. Examining the methodology is more necessary preliminary work that helps one understand the basis for the author's point-of-view.