The Adoption of CRM Initiative among Palestinian Enterprises: A Proposed Framework

Aim/Purpose: This study aimed to examine the relationships among compatibility, relative advantage, complexity, IT Infrastructure, security, top Management Support, financial Support, information Policies, employee engagement, customer pressure, competitive pressure, information integrity, information sharing, attitude toward adopting technology factors, and CRM adoption Background: Customer relationship management (CRM) refers to the use of the process, information, technology, and people for the management of the interactions between the organization and its customers. Therefore, there is a need for SMEs to implement CRM practices in their businesses for competitive advantage. However, in developing nations, the adoption rate of such practices remains low. This low rate may be attributed to the lack of important factors that guide CRM adoption, and as such, the present study attempts to investigate the factors affecting CRM adoption in Palestinian SMEs. This paper used the Diffusion of Innovation Theory (DOI), Resource-Based View (RBV), and Technology, Organization, and Environment Framework (TOE) framework to identify the determinant factors from the technological, organizational, environmental, and information culture perspectives. Methodology: This study uses a quantitative approach to investigate the relationships between the variables. A questionnaire was designed to collect data from 420 SMEs in Palestine. 331respondents completed and returned the survey. The Partial Least Square-Structural Equation Model (PLS-SEM) approach was used to assess both the measurement and structural models. Contribution: This study contributes to both theory and practitioners by providing insights into factors that affect CRM adoption in Palestinian SMEs, which did not explore before. Future research suggestions are also provided. Findings: The results of the study prove that the adoption of CRM depends on compatibility (CMP), security (SEC), top management support (TMS), information policies (INP), financial resources (FR), employee engagement (EEN), competitive pressure (COP), customers pressure (CUP), attitude toward adopting technology (ATA), information integrity (INI), and information sharing (INS). Surprisingly, complexity (CMX), IT infrastructure (ITI), and relative advantage (RLA) do not play any role in CRM adoption in Palestine. Recommendations for Practitioners: This study provides practitioners with the important factors for CRM adoption upon its successful implementation in the context of Palestinian SMEs. Recommendation for Researchers: Our findings may be used to conduct further studies about compatibility, security, top management support, information policies, financial resources, employee engagement, competitive pressure, customers pressure, attitude toward adopting technology, information integrity, information sharing factors, and CRM adoption by using different countries, procedure, and context. Impact on Society: The proposed framework provides insights for SMEs which have significant effects for research and practice to help facilitate the adoption of CRM Future Research: The findings may also be compared to other studies conducted in different contexts and provide deeper insights into the influence of the examined contexts on the employees’ intention toward CRM adoption in banking and universities. It would be fruitful to test whether the results hold true in developed and developing countries.