Positive Disruptions Caused by SCRM Activities in the SECI process of Knowledge Creation: Insights from Four Case Studies

Web 2.0 has been in the foray for a while playing an important role in threading business processes, various departments, systems and key stakeholders (within firms) to activate customer participation and involvement. In order to re-emphasize customer centricity, firms have been using SCRM (Social Customer Relationship Management) approach as a part of their CRM (Customer Relationship Management) strategy. The activities under SCRM are a major source for organizational knowledge creation that occurs due to a continuous dialogue between tacit and explicit knowledge. Also, various social platforms (operating for SCRM) where collaboration takes place acts as a shared context for knowledge creation. To comprehend the actions and limitations of a knowledge-creating firm thoroughly, this research paper examines the process of knowledge-creation by (1) revisiting Nonaka-Takeuchi SECI (Socialization, Externalization, Combination & Internalization) process to recognize how SCRM activities can be prolific in organizational knowledge creation (2) exploring positive disruptions created by integrating SCRM activities with four modes of SECI process for additional knowledge creation (3) analyzing case studies of four firms from consumer products sector that use SCRM approach and (4) discovering the elements under SCRM approach that satisfy ‘BA’ as a shared context.