This research is infonned by two areas of study, customer relationship management (CRM) and infonnation technology (IT) in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). It investigates the behavioural and psychosocial aspects of people within an SME's environment, and their perceptions of the IT and CRM adoption environment. The first major development in this study is a survey instrument, called the b~formatioll Technology and Customer Relationships Management Adoption Inventory (lTCRMAI). The instrument has five scales, which measure the factors of the IT /CRM adoption environment in SMEs. They are Information Technology Resources, Customer Relationships, Organisational, Networking and Barriers to Adoption. This instrument is now available for use in different settings. The other major development is a framework for IT/CRM adoption called the Information Technology/Customer Relationships Adoption Framework. It illustrates the overall adoption process with factors that could influence the outcome of an implementation in SMEs, in this case, is the Perceived Success. The major findings from the study suggest that, in SMEs, various factors influence the CRM/IT adoption environment and these factors are Customer Relationships, Organisational, Networking, Infonnation Technology Resources and Barriers to Adoption. Most of these factors are associated with each other except for Barriers to Adoption, which only associates with the Organisational and Customer Relationships factors. The Infonnation Technology Resources factor has direct contribution to the outcome called Perceived Success of the implementation, whereas other factors have significant associations with this outcome. A more detailed assessment of the Information Technology Resources component found that for SMEs to have a successful implementation, organisations should focus on strengthening their information tcchnology capabilities and abilities. Personal factors of age, gender, education and profession. business factors of size, position in industry and type of industry, and CRM-relatcd factors such as frequency of customer contact and the use of CRM also show signi ficance association with the adoption environment and thc perceived success. The results from this study suggest some guidelines for SMEs when it comes to IT and CRM adoption.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:521882 |
| Date | January 2009 |
| Creators | Nguyen, Thuyuyen H. |
| Publisher | Teesside University |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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