Customer-linking capabilities and CRM technology complementarity in organizations

Rapp, Adam; Trainor, Kevin J; & Agrihotr, Raj (2009). Performance implications of customer-linking capabilities: Examining the complementary role of customer orientation and CRM technology. Journal of Business Research, in Press, Corrected Proof,

Since the advent of customer relation management (CRM) technology, a lot of gains have been reported by the various companies that have implemented this piece of technology. However, most companies fail to realize the full potential of CRM due to their failure to engage the complementary business as well as human resources that are needed in order to successfully deploy as well as fully leverage this investment as noted by Reinartz et al. (2004).In this paper, we preset a critique of the work of Rapp et al. (2009) titled "Performance implications of customer-linking capabilities: Examining the complementary role of customer orientation and CRM technology" with a view of establishing its success and failure as well as gaps in knowledge that it fills.

1.1 Hypothesis:

The most significant hypotheses are;

H1: CRM technology capability positively affects customer-linking capability

H2: Customer orientation positively affects customer-linking capability

1.2. What this study is supposed to add to the existing body of knowledge

This work is supposed to highlight the complementary role of customer orientation as well as CRM technology on the success of customer-linking initiatives.

2. Summary of the study

This article critically examines how technology as well as complementary resources can be bundled in order to form capabilities that can create and foster a durable customer relationship. The article employs a theoretical framework that is based on theories of marketing, information systems as well as strategic management. The very first outcome of the work is a theoretically founded conceptualization of Customer Relations Management (CRM) technology with capabilities made up of three main complementary resources; business, human resource and technology. This work also produced a second key finding that indicated that CRM technology and the concept of customer orientation bear appositive correlation with the development of a durable customer relationship. The same resources are also noted to have positive association and interactive effect on the customer-linking capabilities thus highlighting the need for aligning technology resources with strategic business. The authors concluded that customer-linking capability has a very positive association with customer relationship performance and that this relationship is moderated by the various changes in the external environment. This work addressed the research questions in a cross-sectional research study comprising of a total of two hundred and fifteen organizations by means of a partial least squares modeling technique.

2.1Critique of the research

The work of Rapp et al. (2009 is rooted on a theoretical background and conceptual framework of resource-based view of technological adoption for the sake of gaining a competitive advantage. The theory of CRM technology is also part and parcel of this work. The theoretical model is indicated below;

The hypothesized model

I believe the hypothesized model is appropriate in proving the hypothesis.

The major hypotheses are;

H1: CRM technology capability positively affects customer-linking capability

H2: Customer orientation positively affects customer-linking capability

This is because they are the ones that capture the spirit and aim of our study;: Examining the complementary role of customer orientation and CRM technology.

2.2. Internal validity

This work has a good internal validity. This is because of the various statistical tests of validity that were carried out and gave appositive answer. The tests included Cronbach's Alpha, Average Variance Extracted and Composite Reliability tests.

2.6 Claimed findings as well as contributions

The authors concluded that customer-linking capability has a very positive association with customer relationship performance and that this relationship is moderated by the various changes in the external environment. This work addressed the research questions in a cross-sectional research study comprising of a total of two hundred and fifteen organizations by means of a partial least squares modeling technique. These are correct.The claimed contributions are also accurate since no work exists that addressed these findings in a single piece of literature.

2.7 Overall assessment of the quality of the research

The quality of the research is very high. Its theoretical backings are impeccable and so is the methodology. The only problem is only in sample selection section.