crm studies article

Available online at www.sciencedirect.com

Industrial Marketing Management 37 (2008) 120 – 130

Customer relationship management: Finding value drivers
Keith A. Richards a,⁎, Eli Jones b,1 a b

University of Houston, Bauer College of Business, 334 Melcher Hall, Room 375L, Houston, TX 77204-6021, United States
Sales Excellence Institute, University of Houston, Bauer College of Business, 334 Melcher Hall, Room 375D, Houston, TX 77204-6021, United States
Received 5 October 2005; received in revised form 15 May 2006; accepted 14 August 2006
Available online 13 November 2006

Abstract
Despite significant interest from both academicians and practitioners, customer relationship management (CRM) remains a huge investment with little measured payback. Intuition suggests that increased management of customer relationships should improve business performance, but this intuition has only inconsistent empirical or real world support. To remedy this situation, this study identifies a core group of expected CRM benefits and examines their ability to increase a firm 's value equity, brand equity and relationship equity which are components of customer equity. Ten propositions explore the anticipated effects of these drivers and form an agenda for future research. These propositions establish a framework for measuring CRM and supporting the link between CRM and performance.
© 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Customer relationship management; Customer equity; Value drivers; Performance

The disappointing results from many customer relationship management (CRM) implementations are well documented in both the academic and business press. In 2006 McKinsey
Quarterly cited a Forrester Research report indicating that only
10% of the business and information technology executives they surveyed strongly agreed that expected business results were achieved from implementing CRM (Bard, Harrington,
Kinikin, & Ragsdale, 2005). A 2003 Gartner

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