Electronic Customer Relationship Management: An Assessment of Research

The status and maturity of electronic commerce customer relationship management ECCRM), an emerging subfield of management information systems(MIS), are investigated through an exhaustive literature review of 369 articles from the first published article in 1984 through conference papers given in 2001 and 2002. The results indicate some trends that should be of interest and concern to researchers in this area and in MIS as a whole. First, exploratory surveys dominate the research literature, which in itself may be problematic. More troubling, most of the survey instruments were not validated, and the authors did not mention validation procedures. Second, there has been little theoretical development, and few empirical studies use hypothesis testing. Third, cumulative tradition has hardly emerged, with each study developing a new conceptual model, new constructs, and new instruments. On the positive side, ECCRM researchers have employed a wide range of methods and studied a broad range of topics. The subfield of ECCRM is young, but is growing rapidly, and professional activity in the MIS research community illustrates its importance. Specific recommendations for further development are provided.