The Impact of Social Media as a Customer Relationship Management Tool : A B2B Perspective

• Main Authors: Buss, Olga, Begorgis, Gabriel
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: Karlstads universitet, Handelshögskolan 2015
• Subjects: Customer Relationship Orientation; CRM; CRM in b2b; Social Media; Social media in b2b; Social CRM; Social CRM in b2b; Customer Relationship Performance
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-36382

This study explores the association between the Customer Relationship Orientation of a company, their Social Media Use through Social Customer Relationship Management Capabilities, with Customer Relationship Performance in order to determine if Social Media can be used as an effective Customer Relationship Management tool in a business-to-business context. In addition, the research will explain if the company’s expectations conform to the customer’s experience. Four digital managers within Swedish small and medium sized enterprises were interviewed and 34 of their corresponding customers took part in an online survey. The findings indicated due to companies limited Social Customer Relationship Management Capabilities the positive impact on Customer Relationship Performance was not achieved through Social Media Use. Furthermore the online surveys revealed that Social Media is not the most effective Customer Relationship Management tool, nevertheless a weak relationship was found and thus Social Media can be used in addition to the companies’ already established Customer Relationship Management activities. Future research will focus on increasing the sample size, revisiting the study in a few years, and why certain intermediaries were significant.