Adoption of CRM technology in multichannel environment: a review (2006-2010)

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to review state-of-art literature on adoption of CRM technology, including the CRM in multichannel environment and provide a comprehensive view of insights gained in this area of research through the bibliography. Design/methodology/approach – All together, nine databases were searched on the basis of four main descriptors which provided identification of 812 articles. A close review of the abstracts of these articles led to selection of 123 articles which were found relevant. Each of these articles was further reviewed and classified based on the main channel of CRM implementation. The articles were further classified in sub-categories under each main channel theme. Findings – The selected articles were categorized under four main themes based on the channel – CRM, multichannel CRM, eCRM, mCRM. The articles in the CRM category were mainly focused on the strategic alignment along with research on increasing customer loyalty and use of data mining in CRM. Under the multichannel CRM theme the articles were further classified under eight categories – CRM (articles focusing on overall CRM implementation on multiple channels and related issues), eCRM (articles related to CRM implementation on online channel and its impact in multichannel environment), IT, Marketing, Sales, Service, Strategy, and Mixed (articles addressing two issues simultaneously: Marketing and IT). Originality/value – The bibliography provides a comprehensive academic literature published between 2006 and 2010 covering all the channels of CRM implementation – traditional, electronic and mobile – along with studies specifically focused on issues dealing with multichannel environment.