Customer Relationship Management: The Evolving Role of Customer Data

Abstract

The purpose of the present study is twofold. The authors first present a review of the customer relationship management (CRM) literature between 2003 and 2011. Second, this study introduces an analytical framework of the evolving nature of CRM research and offers novel insights into re-thinking the role and utilisation of customer data in CRM. The authors then argue that a paradigmatically emerging service orientation, value co-creation and social CRM perspective exert pressure to reconfigure the role of customer data. The diminished customer centricity of CRM and the increased pressure to reconfigure the role of customer data, fuelled by new technology and communication channels, stimulates firms to move from an internal use of customer data towards an external use that involves refining and giving customer data back to customers. This suits those firms striving for a service orientation and opens up a variety of business opportunities. Finally, the paper discusses the implications of the new framework for theory and practice.