Investigating customer relationship management systems involvement towards customer knowledge creation processes

This research aims to understand the nature of the interactions among CRM systems (operational, analytical and collaborative), knowledge creation processes (socialisation, externalisation, combination, and internalisation), and the variety of customer knowledge (knowledge to, from, and about the customer). Only by having a deep understanding of such threeway interactions, will organisations be able to maximise their CRM systems usage and identify areas of knowledge creation capabilities improvement. In this exploratory research, data was gathered qualitatively through a series of interview with key respondents in four different organisations in which CRM was used profoundly. The research findings were similar to the initial research propositions; operational CRM provided stronger support towards socialisation and externalisation processes. Analytical CRM showed support towards combination process, specifically in generating knowledge about customers.