CHAPTER 3: Research methodology

3.1 Research Method

This study applies a positivist case study methodology to build, enhance, and verify in-depth
understanding of the influential factors of people-driven processes in CRM between
customers, information, employees, and organizations. Positivist research seeks to explain
and predict social phenomena by searching for regularity and causal relationships among
constituent elements (Burrell and Morgan, 1979). Since survey results cannot present an
objective and complete view of the interrelationships among the elements of people in CRM,
meticulous data collection in the presence of the researcher during the data collection process
is considered essential, in order to clarify concepts and to ensure that the understanding of the
concepts involved is consistent and precise across the subjects.

3.2 Research Process

Table 6: Research Process
Steps Objectives Results
To use literature review and consolidation to analyze the Description of
1. Literature
people-driven processes of CRM and to build the factors research and
Review affecting the dependency on people-driven processes in CRM propositions

To choose different types of CRM-using organizations in Interview results

2. Field
Taiwan proceeding interviews, collecting data, and then
Interviews verifying propositions

To understand the companies background and the CRM Case studies, case
3. Case report and public
operation and to verify the factors affecting the dependency
Analysis data analyses
on people-driven processes in CRM

To triangulate cross case data and analysis, and then to Confirmed

4. Cross Case
compare the commonalities and differences among different propositions and
Analysis cross case findings
cases.
Verified findings
5. Finding To contact interviewees and to verify preliminary findings
Verification with interviewees.

To organize findings through triangulated findings, interview Findings and

6. Conclusion implications
results and relevant literature comparison, and to make
conclusion finally.

As depicted in Table 6, after knowledge consolidation was applied in understanding the

people-driven processes of CRM to answer the first research question, this study focused on
four factors affecting with cause-and-effect relationship the dependency on people-driven
processes in CRM. The literature review was done iteratively for proposition building and
construct enhancement. Next, this study planed to verify the propositions with in-depth study
on CRM case. This research developed the framework for data collection in Table 7 and a

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semi-structured questionnaire (Appendix C) to collect detailed information on the
interrelationships among people-driven processes in CRM, customers, information,
employees, and organizational environments.
Table 7: Framework for Data Collection
Factors Description
People-driven processes
People-driven z People executing the processes of planning customer strategy (Rigby et al., 2002),
processes in CRM making critical decisions (Wayland and Cole, 1997), and coping with customer
problems (Rigby and Ledingham, 2004)
z Possessing the capabilities of understanding, manipulating, and sharing customer
knowledge and customer needs (Stringfellow et al., 2004; Davenport et al., 2004)
z Using nearly face-to-face interactions, participation (Chen and Popovich, 2003),
communication, and coordination (Oldroyd, 2005) to process relationship management
Customer Factors
Customer z Customer emotion is the quality of service transactions (Van Maanen and Kunda 1989;
emotional needs Rafaeli and Sutton 1990) and the interactions with people (Jones and George. 1998).
z The level of customer emotional needs in transaction processing (Stringfellow et al.,
2004)
z The effect of recognizing, eliciting (Stringfellow et al., 2004), and understanding
(Tehrani, 2002) customer emotional needs
Customer z Customer involvement is the level of engagement and active processing undertaken by
involvement the consumer in responding to marketing stimulus (Kotler and Keller, 2006)
z The level of customer involvement in transaction processing (Kotler and Keller, 2006)
z The processes of evaluating (Kotler and Keller, 2006) and participating (Wayland and
Cole, 1997) the high customer involvement of products and service
Dynamics of z The uncertainty of customer needs and business environment
customer needs z The predictability and length of the product life cycle
(Pine ,1993) z The supporting uniqueness of the customer desire and the responsiveness plan of
customization in the future
Information processed
Need for tacit z Tacit knowledge is highly personal and difficult to communicate or share with others
customer (Nonaka and Tackeuchi, 1995)
information z The characteristics of the tacit customer information in the organization (Stringfellow et
al., 2004)
z The effect of analyzing customer patterns and behavior, responding with customized
communications, and sharing or applying tacit knowledge (Davenport et al., 2004)
Employee capabilities
Employee z The capabilities of manipulating and analyzing customer information in the employees
experience and experience and knowledge (Stringfellow et al., 2004)
knowledge z The effect of enhancing employees tacit knowledge (Stringfellow et al., 2004) and
rewarding for engaging in CRM activities (Chen and Popovich, 2003)
Organizational environments
Customer- z Customer orientation culture means implicit organizational assumptions that give each
oriented culture individual in the organization the norms for their behavior (Bentum and Stone, 2005).
z The level of practicing and aligning the customer-oriented culture (Oldroyd, 2005;
Shang and Lin, 2005)
z The participation (Chen and Popovich, 2003), communication and coordination
(Oldroyd, 2005) of all employees within the organization

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In the second step, this study focuses on two groups and four types of CRM-using
organizations in Taiwan, including the automobile and telecom industries (Table 8). Because
customer emotional needs, the customer involvement, the dynamics of customer needs, and
the need for tacit customer information may be influenced by industry characteristics, this
paper chose two kinds of industries to investigate the level of effect. The differences
industries in Groups 1 and 2 are used to examine the propositions of customer characteristics
and processed information. Furthermore, different companies in the same industry,
Companies A and B in Group 1 may have different dependencies on people-driven processes
that could be used to shed light on the propositions of employee capabilities and
organizational environments.

Table 8: The Four Types of CRM-using Organizations

Group Companies Industry People-driven process
Group 1 Company A The automobile Higher dependency
Company B industry Lower dependency
Group 2 Company C The telecom High dependency
Company D industry Lower dependency

Table 9: Description of Case studied

Company A Company B Company C Company D
Founded Production began in Production began in Corporatization in Production began in
1997 1997 1996 1997
Business General agent of General agent of A full range of Mobile
luxury motor luxury motor telecommunications communications
vehicle brand vehicle brand service service
Market Performance (2005/ 2006)
Market Share
26.7%/ 28.9% 5.3%/ 4% 39.6%/ 40.9% 30.0%/ 28.9%
(Subscribers)
Performance J.D. Power Ranking J.D. Power Ranking Churn Rate Churn Rate
indicators & grades & grades 1.40%/ 0.79% 2.82%/ 2.00%
CSI: 1(856)/ 1(876) CSI: 3(838)/ 7(843) ARPU (NT$) ARPU (NT$)
SSI: 1(840)/ 1(894) SSI: 9(814)/ 7(851) 742/ 731 776/ 797
Note: (1) ARPU (average revenue per user), CSI (Customer Service Index), SSI (Sales Satisfaction Index).
(2) J.D. Power is a global marketing information firm that conducts independent and unbiased surveys
of customer satisfaction, product quality and buyer behavior.

This research performs case studies on firms in the automobile and telecom industries,
selecting two similar companies in each industry for case studies (Table 9). CRM technology
applications link front office (e.g. sales, marketing and customer service) and back office (e.g.
financial, operations, logistics and human resources) functions with the company's customer
"touch points" (Fickel, 1999). Because the automobile and telecom industries have similar
organizational structures, this paper conducted interviews with employees in the front and

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back offices. For example, in the automobile industry, the general agent belongs to the back
offices, while the dealers belonged to the front office.

In order to study higher customer emotional needs, and customer involvement, this paper
selected the luxury car market in Taiwan. For many people, a car is not only a form of
transportation, but also reflects emotional issues of status, self-esteem, and safety (Wayland
and Cole, 1997). This is especially true of imported luxury cars. Automobile companies and
their networks of dealers maintain substantial information in their databases about individual
customers and their service experiences. Companies leverage that information in their
customer relationships.

The telecom market in Taiwan is both mature and saturated, with one of the highest
penetration rates in the world. The telecom industry is a service industry and maintains
copious information on its customers (Shang and Ko, 2006). Nevertheless, neither the
companies was able to use that information to either identify satisfied customers or to provide
customers with compelling reasons for remaining loyal (Wayland and Cole, 1997).

Table 10: Profiles of Interviewees

Department Job Title Interview Time
A CS Planning Department/ General agent Department Leader 2hrs 14ms
Senior Director
Showroom/ Dealer Assistant manager 1hrs 55ms
Sales Consultant
B Service Planning Group/ General agent Senior Manager 1hrs 30ms
Administrator
Showroom/ Dealer Sales Consultant 1hrs 45ms
C Marketing Department/ General Headquarters Senior Director 2hrs 15ms
Manager
Branch Offices/ Mobile Business Group Service Center Manager 1hrs 55ms
Service Center Section Manager
D Loyalty & VAS Marketing Division Director 1hrs 30ms
Direct Store Division Regional Manager 1hrs 15ms

Data were collected primarily by means of in-depth interviews and secondary data analysis.
Multiple interviewees from all four cases were contacted for collecting data (Table 10).
Interviews were planned with two to four managers and experienced employees in the
marketing, sales, and service departments. Interviews were typically one to two hours with 1-
2 interviewees. To reduce the possibility of regency-effect bias, several data triangulation
tactics were used. During each interview, subjects were asked to think retrospectively
regarding the details of business conditions, benefits and problems of the operating processes

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of CRM, and to supply supporting evidence. The results were then cross-validated with
internal and external documents and various interviewees in the case organizations.

The third step applied the case study method to validate the model and gain a richer
understanding of the propositions. Using an approach similar to that described by Eisenhardt
(1989) for within- and cross-case analysis, all interviews were then transcribed and compared
with other interviews and documents from different organizations. Each case was discussed
and analyzed in detail to understand its people-driven processes in CRM. To investigate
commonalities and differences between cases, cross-case analysis was performed. In this
stage, the research formed preliminary findings and confirmed propositions.

Finally, preliminary findings and confirmed propositions were consolidated to produce

further findings that provide greater insight in the people-driven processes in CRM.
Conclusions were then formulated based on the verified and validated results.

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