Investigating the Antecedents and Outcomes of B2B Firms’ Social CRM Capabilities in an Emerging Market.

Abstract

This study investigates the how entrepreneurial orientation contribute to a firm-level capability of social customer relationship management (CRM) in the context of business-to-business (B2B) firms in emerging markets. With the rising utilisation of social media, B2B firms are recognising the need to adapt their CRM strategies and develop new marketing capabilities that can enhance firm performance. Notably, 96% of managers expect to integrate social data into their firm’s CRM within the next the three years. However, despite the increased attention from both researchers and practitioners, social CRM is still a new phenomenon which remains underexplored. Social CRM is a strategy that integrates social media with CRM systems to manage and enhance customer relationships. Previous studies built on the resource-based view (RBV) and dynamic capabilities theories to examine the social CRM capabilities. These studies suggested that social CRM capability is critical when firms merge social media into their marketing strategy to gain the performance benefits. However, prior literature ignored the entrepreneurial aspects in the context of social CRM and in uncertain environments. Therefore, this study considers entrepreneurial orientation as a driver of social CRM capabilities and examines these relationships under the effectual logic. Drawing from the resource-based view (RBV), dynamic capabilities and effectuation theory, this study specifically examines the influence of all the dimensions of entrepreneurial orientation – innovativeness, proactiveness, risk-taking, autonomy and aggressiveness- on social CRM capabilities. This study also investigates the moderating role of customer-centric management systems on the entrepreneurial orientation and social CRM capabilities relationship. Additionally, firm performance is examined as an outcome of social CRM capabilities. A conceptual model outlining these relationships is developed and presented. Using a sample of 217 B2B firms in an emerging market, Turkey, the conceptual model is analysed using structural equation modeling. The data is analysed utilising LISREL 9.3 software, including descriptive analysis, exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis. The findings reveal that autonomy, aggressiveness, and risk-taking are positively related to social CRM capabilities, while innovativeness and proactiveness are insignificant in the context of uncertain environments. Additionally, findings show that customer-centric management systems positively moderate the relationship between all of the entrepreneurial orientation dimensions and social CRM capabilities which suggests that entrepreneurs need to appropriately use resources to develop social CRM capabilities. It is also found that social CRM capabilities positively influence firm performance. The study controlled for technology resources, firm size, and experience with social media. Results indicated that technology resources positively impact firm performance but negatively affect social CRM capabilities. Firm size positively influences firm performance but has no significant effect on social CRM capabilities. Experience showed no significant relationship with either social CRM capabilities or firm performance. This study contributes to both theory and practice. The first key contribution is that this is the first study to investigate the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and social CRM capabilities. Also, within this context, this study builds on effectuation theory to examine the influence of entrepreneur’s decision-making logics particularly in uncertain environments, which is also the first study to adapt effectuation theory in the context of social CRM. In addition, this study further investigates the social CRM capabilities and firm performance relationship focussing only on the B2B firms in emerging markets. Finally, this doctoral thesis provides novel insights to B2B firms on how to develop stronger social CRM capabilities to enhance their firm performance from the entrepreneurial perspective. The thesis concludes with a discussion on limitations and suggestions for areas of future research.