Social Customer Relationship Management

Dear colleagues,

Customer relationship management (CRM) shifts the attention of businesses from adopting a transactional marketing approach, which focuses on operational efficiency and sales performance, to a relationship-oriented approach that emphasizes attracting, enhancing, and maintaining lucrative customer relationships (Berry, 1983). CRM is a multidimensional concept involving planning and implementation, organizational support, technology and tools, customer perspectives and characteristics, and outcome and impact (Law, Fong, Chan, and Fong, 2018). Effective CRM systems and strategies play a significant role in helping businesses survive in intense competition and remain profitable (Peppers and Rogers, 1993).

According to Smart Insights (2020), social media users spend 2.5 hours per day “socializing” and networking across social networking sites and messaging applications. The heavy usage and reliance on social media have turned contemporary consumers into “social customers” and revolutionized the way customer relationships should be managed. As a result, social media has been integrated into existing marketing and CRM strategies, giving rise to the concept of “social CRM” (Greenberg, 2010). Social CRM is defined as both a management philosophy and a business strategy to engage customers in a collaborative interaction supported by a system or a technology (Choudhury and Harrigan, 2014; Greenberg, 2010; Harrigan, Soutar, Choudhury and Lowe, 2015; Woodcock, Green, and Starkey, 2011). Social CRM is different from traditional CRM as the former focuses on “managing customers” whereas the latter stresses “engaging customers” and creating mutual values for both the businesses and customers (Chan, Fong, Law, and Fong, 2018).

Although the concept of social CRM was introduced in 2010 by Greenberg, efforts in advancing the concept itself, its theoretical foundation, and methodology have been scant (Chan et al., 2018). This Special Issue intends to encourage groundbreaking interdisciplinary research efforts on social CRM. Facilitating discussions on major issues and current topics regarding the implementation of social CRM and the role of customers in it, this Special Issue aims to advance the literature on social CRM by enhancing the understanding of the concept and its impacts, outcome, and customer responses.

Suggested topics for this Special Issue include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Theoretical and methodological developments of social CRM research;
• Advanced social media analytical methods and tools;
• Social CRM strategies and practices in contemporary businesses;
• Social CRM technologies;
• Organizational alignment and support for social CRM processes;
• Different perspectives held by various departments involved in the social CRM process;
• Employees’ perceptions toward social CRM;
• Outcomes of social CRM implementations;
• Effectiveness of social CRM strategies on enhancing customer relationships and firm performance;
• The interdependence between social CRM and traditional CRM processes;
• Customers’ perceptions of social CRM;
• Customer–customer interactions in social CRM;
• Customer engagement in social CRM;
• Socio-psychological aspects of social CRM;
• Sustainability opportunities and challenges related to social CRM;
• Other topics related to social CRM.

References:

Berry, L. L. (1983). Relationship marketing. In L. L. Berry, G. L. Shostack, & G. D. Upah (Eds.), Emerging Perspectives on Services Marketing (pp. 25-28). Chicago, IL: American Marketing Association.

Chan, I. C. C., Fong, D. K. C., Law, R., & Fong, L. H. N. (2018). State-of-the-art social customer relationship management. Asia Pacific Journal of Tourism Research, 23(5), 423-436.

Choudhury, M. M., & Harrigan, P. (2014). CRM to social CRM: The integration of new technologies into customer relationship management. Journal of Strategic Marketing, 22(2), 149-176.

Greenberg, P. (2010). The impact of CRM 2.0 on customer insight. Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, 25(6), 410-419.

Harrigan, P., Soutar, G., Choudhury, M. M., & Lowe, M. (2015). Modelling CRM in a social media age. Australasian Marketing Journal, 23(1), 27-37.

Law, R., Fong, D. K. C., Chan, I. C. C., & Fong, L. H. N. (2018). Systematic review of hospitality CRM research. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Research, 30(3), 1686-1704.

Peppers, D., & Rogers, M. (1993). The one to one future: Building relationships one customer at a time. New York, NY: Doubleday.

Smart Insights. (2020). Global Social Media Research Summary 2020. Retrieved from https://www.smartinsights.com/social-media-marketing/social-media-strategy/new-global-social-media-research/

Woodcock, N., Green, A., & Starkey, M. (2011). Social CRM as a business strategy. Journal of Database Marketing & Customer Strategy Management, 18, 50-64.

Prof. Rob Law
Dr. Irene Cheng Chu Chan
Dr. Sunny Sun
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.