An empirical study on the e-CRM performance influence model for service sectors in Taiwan

Electronic customer relationship management (e-CRM) emerges from the Internet and web technology to facilitate the implementation of CRM. It focuses on internet- or web-based interaction between companies and their customers. Above all, e-CRM enables service sectors to provide appropriate services and products to satisfy the customers so as to retain customer royally and enhance customer profitability. This research is to explore the key research issues about e-CRM performance influence for service sectors in Taiwan. A research model is proposed based on the widely applied technology-organization-environment (TOE) framework. Survey data from the questionnaire are collected to empirically assess our research model. With the structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis, the results show that e-CRM technology and organizational support are positively related to the e-CRM performance, while environmental pressure, though a drive to e-CRM adoption, does not impact the performance significantly. More interestingly, it is observed that organizational support has a greater impact than e-CRM technology adoption. It is always a good principle to care customers' relationship more from human nature perspectives than from technology-oriented considerations. Furthermore, in the aspect of organizational support, skilled and knowledgeable e-CRM personnel are the most important impacting factor among others. The results of this research can provide meaningful insights for service sectors practitioners in Taiwan.