Using action research to identify unexpected factors affecting CRM implementation

Abstract

No action research has been conducted regarding the status of CRM implementation in the public institution sector. This study aims to identify rare or unexpected contextual, organizational, and individual factors behind the CRM implementation at a state SBDC. For this purpose, interview data was collected from 19 consultants of the state SBDC. Surprisingly this CRM implementation is considered particularly successful even though it involved only internal user participation for the individual factors. To be successful, CRM implementation must involve internal and external user participation. Our findings about internal user participation contradict the previous research. During the progression of the qualitative analysis, other rare or unexpected factors to the CRM implementation literature were found. These are: accreditation review pressure for the contextual factors and legal and licensing agreement feasibility for the organizational factors.