CRM literature: conceptual and functional insights by keyword analysis

• Published in: Marketing intelligence & planning Vol. 27; no. 1; pp. 48 - 85
• Main Authors: Kevork, Eleni K, Vrechopoulos, Adam P
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Bradford Emerald Group Publishing Limited 01.01.2009; Emerald
• Subjects: Classification; Classification schemes; Customer relations; Customer relationship management; Electronic commerce; Frequency distribution; Information retrieval; Information systems; Keywords; Knowledge management; Marketing; Referencing; Researchers; Statistical analysis; Information retrieval; Classification schemes; Referencing; Customer relations; Electronic commerce
• ISSN: 0263-4503; 1758-8049
• DOI: 10.1108/02634500910928362

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to review the literature on customer relationship management (CRM) to obtain a comprehensive framework of mutually exclusive CRM research areas and sub-areas free of all potentially disruptive factors (plethora of CRM definitions, personal judgments, etc.).Design methodology approach - The keywords reported in 396 CRM articles published during the period 2000-2006 are used to uncover first a great number of detailed keyword sub-groups and, by subject summation, the CRM-related research areas. This classification scheme is considered unbiased, in contrast with any direct classification of articles alone among CRM research areas fixed in advance.Findings - An up-to-date conceptual and functional CRM framework emerges, consisting of a total of nine distinct research areas having their own weights, importance and popularity among the research community. Newly emerging CRM research areas are self-identified as attracting the interest of the researchers and managers.Originality value - Keywords are activated, for a first time, as an added value characteristic reflecting genuinely the authors' beliefs about the subject content fields of their articles, important enough to reveal a self-supported and self-weighted unbiased and exhaustive CRM framework, useful to researchers and marketing practitioners. The paper offers strong evidence that e-CRM is too complex to be comprehensively classified by mere procedures and simple criteria alone.