Title: Micro sized retailers usage of e-CRM: A study about how far micro sized retailers have implemented e-CRM and exploration of what factors can describe the e-CRM adoption   Course code: 4FE03E   Authors:        Fredrik Fagerström               880107                   Linda Sjögren                      880805   Research question: The research explores what factors can explain e-CRM adoption of micro sized retailers through 6 hypotheses, derived from literature review.   Purpose: The purpose of this study is to describe how far micro sized retailers have implemented e-CRM and explore what factors can describe their e-CRM adoption.   Methodology: The result of the study consists of the participation of 137 micro sized retailers on the Swedish market. A quantitative questionnaire has been developed out of theories and qualitative pilot-studies.   Conclusion: This research can conclude that micro sized retailers on the Swedish market have, in average, implemented 5 e-CRM features per company. This equals a 12% usage of the total e-CRM features explored for this research. The one proved factor that can describe how retailers have adopted e-CRM is their profitability rate. Companies with a profitability rate below market average are more likely to have implemented more e-CRM features than companies with higher profit rate than market average. The explanation to this might be that companies with a low profit rate implement e-CRM as a tool to cure their low profit rate, since e-CRM is supposed to bring benefits as lower costs and increased sales with the purpose to increase their profit in the future.   Key words; e-CRM, growth orientation, micro sized companies, retailers

Networking has shown to benefit SMEs in terms of increasing resource acquisition and knowledge transfer, two vital components in SME growth and survival. However, previous research has indicated that SME network management is largely determined by the strategic orientation of the firm, which in turn, is influenced by the owner/manager. Third party involvement has moreover been suggested to positively influence networking participation by facilitating the overall networking process for SMEs. In the present study, the moderating effect of non-profit, municipal third party involvement, on the relationship between firm growth orientation and network intensity and range, is thus examined.

In this dissertation I argue that in the characters in Lawrence Durrell's The Alexandria Quartet there is consistently evidenced a psychological orientation towards growth. An introductory Chapter One surveys and a concluding Chapter Six summarizes the dissertation, but the body of the text is four chapters demonstrating the growth-orientation in four characters.