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Knowledge‐enabled customer relationship management: integrating customer relationship management and knowledge management concepts[1]

Henning Gebert (Researcher (henning.gebert@unisg.ch), Institute of Information Management, University of St Gallen, St Gallen, Switzerland)
Malte Geib (Researcher (malte.geib@unisg.ch), Institute of Information Management, University of St Gallen, St Gallen, Switzerland)
Lutz Kolbe (Research Head (lutz.kolbe@unisg.ch), Institute of Information Management, University of St Gallen, St Gallen, Switzerland)
Walter Brenner (Professor (walter.brenner@unisg.ch), Institute of Information Management, University of St Gallen, St Gallen, Switzerland)

Journal of Knowledge Management

ISSN: 1367-3270

Article publication date: 1 December 2003

23300

Abstract

The concepts of customer relationship management (CRM) and knowledge management (KM) both focus on allocating resources to supportive business activities in order to gain competitive advantages. CRM focuses on managing the relationship between a company and its current and prospective customer base as a key to success, while KM recognizes the knowledge available to a company as a major success factor. From a business process manager’s perspective both the CRM and KM approaches promise a positive impact on cost structures and revenue streams in return for the allocation of resources. However, investments in CRM and KM projects are not without risk, as demonstrated by many failed projects. In this paper we show that the benefit of using CRM and KM can be enhanced and the risk of failure reduced by integrating both approaches into a customer knowledge management (CKM) model. In this regard, managing relationships requires managing customer knowledge – knowledge about as well as from and for customers. In CKM, KM plays the role of a service provider, managing the four knowledge aspects: content, competence, collaboration and composition. Our findings are based on a literature analysis and six years of action research, supplemented by case studies and surveys.

Keywords

Citation

Gebert, H., Geib, M., Kolbe, L. and Brenner, W. (2003), "Knowledge‐enabled customer relationship management: integrating customer relationship management and knowledge management concepts[1]", Journal of Knowledge Management, Vol. 7 No. 5, pp. 107-123. https://doi.org/10.1108/13673270310505421

Publisher

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MCB UP Ltd

Copyright © 2003, MCB UP Limited

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