Investigating critical factors of social CRM adoption using technology, organization, and environment (TOE) framework and analytical hierarchy process (AHP)

Abstract

Over the past three years, we have tracked the rising adoption of Web 2.0 technologies, both for individual and organizational. Enterprises believe Web 2.0 will provide new ways for interacting with their consumers, which is more convenient, easier, and cheaper. Social CRM becomes new concept and strategy for enterprises in utilizing Web 2.0 technologies to interact with and listen to their customers through social media. Although Social CRM offers more benefits, it might have side impact for the enterprises. Thus, the adoption of Social CRM still needs profound evaluation in order to minimize the adverse impact. This study aims to investigate critical factors of Social CRM adoption using TOE (technology, organization, and environment) framework and AHP technique. The case studies were carried out into two companies. The result shows critical factors of CRM adoption for Company 1 come from external factors; they are prioritizing customer, trustworthy information, and customer characteristics. Meanwhile, critical factors of CRM adoption for Company 2 come from internal factors; they are savvy employee, top management support, and customer-oriented business strategy.