Moving Beyond the Direct Impact of Using CRM Systems on Frontline Employees' Service Performance: The Mediating Role of Adaptive Behavior

The customer relationship management (CRM) system has been touted as a primary tool for supporting frontline employees’ personalized services tasks. Although a number of studies have highlighted the critical role of CRM systems in organizational performance, the link between CRM systems and individual work performance is still under investigation. In order to fill this research gap, the current research-in-progress paper focuses on IT-driven adaptive behavior of frontline employees in the service context. We propose a theoretical model to understand the impacts of two levels of CRM systems deep usage (routinization and infusion) on employees’ interpersonal and offering adaptive behavior, which in turn, enhance employees’ service performance. This study aims to highlight the importance of adaptive behavior in mediating the relationships between CRM systems use and individual employees’ service performance. A field study will be conducted to support the model and multi-sourced data will be gathered from employees’ self-reported together with manager-reported and customer surveys.