Understanding the Implementation of Social Customer Relationship Management in the North African Context: An Integrated Theory Perspective

ABSTRACT Social customer relationship management (CRM) deals with integrating social media data with traditional CRM in order to engage customers. This paper extends the Technology-Organization-Environment model with the diffusion of innovation theory to obtain insights into the factors and differences driving the use of social CRM in firms in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia (n = 211). We find that the key factors driving the use of social CRM are organizational, through top management support and employee IT skills. Environmental factors also play a role, particularly through competitive pressure Compatibility, as a technology factor, is apparently not an antecedent to use. Our research also finds differences in social CRM use according to gender and industry, with male managers and those in ICT, media, training, and consulting more likely to use social CRM. This study differs from past studies by focusing on use rather than on adoption while examining a new context to provide additional insight for theory and practice.