Abstract

Organizations today have a diversity of applications available which support the management of customer relationships, namely electronic-customer relationship management (eCRM) applications. Despite the growing needs of understanding eCRM in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), research to date primarily focuses on large organizations in their investigation of eCRM. Building on the theory of dynamic capabilities, this paper examines the relationships among use of the internet infrastructure, eCRM capabilities, and their resulting benefits through a survey across 286 SMEs in Ireland. Findings present significant theoretical and practical contributions. It is posited that the ICT infrastructure of the SME strongly impacts eCRM capabilities of customer information management and communication. Further, it is posited that the level of use of ICT generally impacts on eCRM capabilities, with the exception of website management, which was not found to impact customer information management capability. Ultimately, the more proficient an SME's eCRM capabilities, the higher the levels of benefits recorded. Our study into eCRM in SMEs provides a valuable theoretical contribution and also aims to inspire further research in this important area.

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