Antecedents and Consequences of Implementing Electronic Customer Relationship Management in Small and ‎Medium Enterprises

With the increasing advancement of information and communication technologies, electronic customer relationship management (E-CRM) has been considered by organizations.Considering the main factors contributing to its success and failure and its main effects are among the concerns of managers that have not yet been fully investigated. This study was designed to investigate the factors affecting the establishment of e-customer relationship managementand the impact of its implementation on loyalty, profitability, and competitive advantage.For this purpose, field studies in small and mediumenterprises were studied. The statistical population of the study consisted of managers and staffs of knowledge-based companies of Isfahan Science and Technology Town, 300 of whom were selected by simple random sampling. A researcher-made questionnaire was used for data collection. The content and construct validities were used to determine the validity and Cronbach's alpha was used to determine its reliability, which its value was 0.79. The structural equations approach, AMOS22 and SPSS22 software were used to analyze the data and to test the research hypotheses. This study, while identifying the most important factors affecting the success and failure of E-CRM, clarified the positive impact of its effective implementation on customer loyalty, profitability, and competitive advantage. In addition, the results showed that using proper and up-to-date technology, implementing knowledge management and information sharing, teaching and preparing human resources, and interacting with customers had a vital role in the effective implementation of E-CRM.