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Section 1: Foundation of the Study
The COVID-19 pandemic motivated sales leaders to come up with new strategies
for assisting sales professionals in prospecting, selling, and provisioning services with
less in-person customer contact. Customer access is essential for obtaining critical
customer information to build and maintain valued relationships (Badrinarayanan et al.,
2019). In today's economy, customer relationship management (CRM) is an
indispensable and powerful IT-based technology solution firms use to manage customer-
related information and relationships (Jager, 2021; Shukla & Pattnaik, 2019). Faced with
low-touch sales conditions, evolving customer demands, and increased competition, firms
are changing how they use CRM systems to form personal connections with customers
(Ngo & Vu, 2021). In a global environment, firm leaders search for ways to help build
and manage customer relationships.
Background of the Problem
Although CRM is not a novel system, process, or tool, CRM spending is trending
upward, with analysts anticipating it will reach USD 80 billion in sales by 2025 (Grand
View Research, 2021). Despite firms' significant investment in CRM, Deshmukh et al.
(2020) estimated that 60 to 80% of CRM projects fail. Several factors impede
organizations from achieving the full potential of CRM, such as mismanagement
(Deshmukh et al., 2020), underutilization (Azhakarraja, 2020), lack of momentum
(Kotter et al., 2004), and lack of full integration into business practices (Chen et al., 2021;
Jager, 2021). In the postadoption stage, many firms experience poor integration of the
CRM system into organizational processes and sporadic use among employees (Chen et
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al., 2020). In the United States and Europe, only 12% of firms are using CRM
productively (Tazkarji & Stafford, 2020).
Problem Statement
Approximately 90% of CRM projects fail to meet client expectations (Chen et al.,
2020). The CRM service industry's anticipated 8.2% annualized contribution to the U.S.
economy is much higher than the anticipated growth of the gross domestic product
(IBISWorld, 2022); nonetheless, the probability of success remains low (Hallikainen et
al., 2020; Ngo & Vu, 2021). The general business problem is that firm leaders often
experience challenges managing change and orchestrating organizational resources to
integrate CRM into overall operations, resulting in failed CRM initiatives. The specific
business problem is that some firm leaders lack strategies to manage change and
organizational resources when implementing CRM systems.
Purpose Statement
The purpose of qualitative multiple case study was to explore strategies that firm
leaders used to manage change and organizational resources when implementing CRM.
The targeted population was business-to-business (B2B) firm leaders working for small
or medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) within Texas who used strategies to manage change
and organizational resources when implementing CRM. The findings from this study may
have a positive effect on social change in SMEs because improved CRM use may lead to
new business prospects and affect sales orders and, thus, firm revenue. As a result, firms
might have extra money to increase involvement in local corporate social responsibility
(CSR) programs that positively impact the local economy and communities.
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Nature of the Study
A qualitative approach was appropriate for this study because researchers seek in-
depth understandings and insights into business leaders' activities and decisions relative
to a contemporary problem (Saunders et al., 2016). With qualitative studies, researchers
build a rapport with study participants to interpret participants' perceptions, experiences,
and activities (Saunders et al., 2016). In addition, for qualitative research, all research
participants should be qualified to serve as key informants and be able to share their
experiences as organizational leaders (Lanka et al., 2021). I was more interested in the
diversity of firm leaders' first-hand descriptions, stories, and interpretations, without
inadvertently manipulating their input, than in capturing objective statistical data. Thus, a
quantitative research method was not appropriate for this research because it does not
lend itself to an in-depth exploratory study of the research question (see Lanka et al.,
2021). Also, I did not test hypotheses, and the research question did not necessitate
comparing or measuring variables. According to Saunders et al. (2016) and Yin (2018), a
mixed-method approach combines qualitative and quantitative methodologies. As defined
by Lanka et al., a mixed-method approach consists of integrated qualitative and
quantitative components. Therefore, a mixed-method approach was not suitable for this
study.
I explored ethnography, phenomenology design, and case studies for the research
design. Ethnography concerns the study of people, culture, and the interaction of the two
(Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). I did not study the cultural experience of any group, so
ethnography was inappropriate. Phenomenology concerns the shared nature of a lived
4
experience among a particular group concerning a specific concept (Englander, 2019). As
I did not intend to share the lived experiences of a group, a phenomenological design was
inappropriate. To address the research question in this qualitative study, I used an
exploratory multiple case study as the research design. The case study method was
appropriate because researchers focus on a contemporary phenomenon or case, which
merits a detailed description instead of a historical event or phenomenon (Yin, 2018).
The researcher does not need control over behavioral events; instead, they rely on
cognitive access to data and information that study participants verbally share during
interviews and other observable factors of interest (Yin, 2018). With the exploratory case
study design, researchers can change course based on new data or information obtained to
better comprehend why a phenomenon occurs (Saunders et al., 2016). With the multiple
case study methodology, researchers can replicate and compare across diverse
organizations or analytical units (Saunders et al., 2016). Because the research questions
were neither critical nor unique, a single case study approach was inapplicable (see
Saunders et al., 2016).
Research Question
What strategies do firm leaders use to manage change and organizational
resources when implementing CRM?
Interview Questions
The following interview questions supported the central research question:
1. What strategies do you use to manage change and organizational resources
when implementing CRM?
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2. What strategies were the most effective in managing change and
organizational resources when implementing CRM?
3. What strategies were the least effective in managing change and
organizational resources when implementing CRM?
4. What were some of the key challenges you experienced when implementing
CRM?
5. How did you identify and address major challenges when implementing
CRM?
6. What additional information would you like to share about your strategies for
managing change and organizational resources when implementing CRM?
Conceptual Framework
The theory that grounded this study was Kotter's 8-step change management
model. Kotter (1996) identified eight steps for achieving organizational change
management success, which winning firms employ:
Step 1: Create a sense of urgency
Step 2: Build/form the guiding team/coalition
Step 3: Create the vision, strategies, and initiatives
Step 4: Convey the vision and strategy to managers, employees, and
stakeholders to obtain buy-in
Step 5: Empower others to action
Step 6: Create short-term wins
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Step 7: Don’t let up; sustain momentum and acceleration
Step 8: Make change stick (i.e., incorporate changes into the culture)
Like other change models, Kotter's traditional model includes a vision for what
the organization intends to accomplish and a process to motivate individuals to change
their behavior (Pregmark, 2022). For large-scale change initiatives, Kotter’s model
addresses employee resistance as a significant obstacle and the leaders’ role in persuading
the organization to shift to achieve an organization’s desired outcome (Kotter et al., 2004;
Pregmark, 2022). According to Bose (2020), Kotter highlighted how leaders share the
vision with employees, how employees participate in the entire change process, and the
significance of motivating employees to achieve short-term successes.
The logical connection between the framework presented and the nature of my
study included how the theoretical construct steps helped me explore how firm leaders
predicted whether employees would adopt a technology, what motivated them to use and
embrace it, and what adoption meant to users. Exploring the strategies leaders used to
manage change and organizational resources when implementing CRM or any
technological system was more complex than exploring traditional versus contemporary
theories, choosing between theories or models from various fields, or selecting a widely
accepted theory. My research question prompted me to investigate theories, models,
constructs, and frameworks researchers used to explore how business leaders motivate
employees or address employee resistance before investing in large-scale, organization-
wide system projects. I sought to examine process-related theories and models that
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reflected the dynamic and competitive business environment, consider stakeholders’
feelings and opinions, and provide a road map for driving and sustaining change. B
Operational Definitions
Business intelligence: BI includes applications, infrastructure, tools, and
processes essential for decision making (Crosthwaite & Sittrop, 2021).
CRM system: CRM is an IT software tool that marketing and sales professionals
use for innovation and knowledge sharing (Arnett et al., 2021). The purpose of a CRM
system is to provide a method, process, people, and knowledge management repository
that organizations use to achieve greater effectiveness in managing end-to-end customer
relationships (Batista et al., 2020; Deshmukh et al., 2020) and increase revenue through
long-term relationships (Arli et al., 2018).
Knowledge management: Knowledge management includes acquiring, sharing,
managing, and applying an organization's proprietary customer assets (Migdadi, 2020).
Assumptions, Limitations, and Delimitations
Assumptions
Researchers must identify any assumptions, limitations, or delimitations that may
impact how readers interpret or perceive their research, particularly given the controversy
among researchers regarding the quality of qualitative research (Sebele-Mpofu, 2020).
Assumptions are the conceivable decisions researchers make (e.g., about human
knowledge, certain realities, or how their values may influence their research) that affect
their research process, whether consciously or unconsciously (Saunders et al., 2016). For
this study, I assumed that the participants’ responses would not differ if I conducted the
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interviews in person versus virtually. I also assumed that the participants understood the
interview questions and answered honestly and ethically.
Limitations
All research has inherent limitations and weaknesses that could affect the study
results (Saunders et al., 2016). Identifying problems or deficiencies and reflecting on the
study's limitations are essential for improving research quality and credibility (Sim et al.,
2018). One study limitation was that I collected data via interviews with SME firm
leaders in Texas, which may not be generalizable to firms in other sized organizations
and geographic markets. An additional limitation might stem from firms' chosen CRM
systems, the system design, usability, whether system use is mandatory if the system is
current, and whether employees receive rewards or punishments for postimplementation
system use. Last, leaders' oversight of employees' CRM use may vary in how leaders
perceive, interpret, and communicate their observations. Some challenges included
gaining access to leaders, avoiding scope creep, and determining what data were vital and
relevant to research. Additional challenges included the time allocated for research and
the fallacy of equating high CRM system use with productivity.
Delimitations
Research delimitations refer to the scope (i.e., factors and research components),
boundaries, and limits the researcher sets so their study's objectives do not become
impossible to accomplish (Theofanidis & Fountouki, 2018). The targeted population
consisted of B2B firm leaders working for SMEs within Texas who used strategies to
manage change and organizational resources when implementing CRM. Thus,
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delimitations included the study participants being solely firm leaders with direct
responsibility for employees who use CRM. Those firms had to be within the
geographical boundary of Texas. Additional delimitations included leaders who managed
employees who used CRM and that data collection occurred via virtual interviews.
Significance of the Study
Implementing a CRM system requires organizational commitment, change
management competencies, an understanding of business risks, and the orchestration and
integration of people, processes, and technology (Batista et al., 2020; Crosthwaite &
Sittrop, 2021). Firm-level CRM implementation challenges permeate extant literature as
if CRM is a quick-fix technology that employees will embrace regardless of system
complexity, training barriers, time constraints, or change resistance. Business leaders may
use the study’s findings to develop effective strategies to manage change and
organizational resources when implementing CRM. They may also use the results to gain
a stronger sense of effective approaches and factors for managing change and
organizational resources to implement CRM.
Contribution to Business Practice
Understanding and diagnosing workplace motivation is a complex topic (L.
Koziol & M. Koziol, 2020; Zang et al., 2020). When coupled with technology
implementations (i.e., CRM), organizational change management is vital to employees’
perceived usefulness, adoption, and productive use of complex and ubiquitous CRM
tools. The findings of this study may provide firm leaders with valuable insights into
research related to CRM implementations, behaviors, and performance, as well as change
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management. As organizations use various CRM features to meet the modern buyer’s
expectations (Dover & Peterson, 2020), firm leaders should be aware of effective
strategies to reduce employees’ resistance.
Implications for Social Change
The findings from this study may have a positive effect on social change in SMEs
because improved CRM system use may lead to new business prospects and affect sales
orders and, thus, firm revenue. As a result, firms might have extra money to increase
involvement in local CSR programs, like offering employees a quarterly paid week of
service, funding paid internships for local high school and college students, and
collaborating with local community organizations to provide low-income residents or
single parents with free online career training. Firm leaders should have more time and
resources to devote to focusing on increasing firm engagement in programs that help the
local economy.
A Review of the Professional and Academic Literature
There is limited to no argument about whether CRM is an essential business tool
supporting employees’ critical customer-specific tasks. However, 50% of organizations
have been unable to implement CRM (Meena & Sahu, 2021), partly because employees
resist adopting CRM (Aydin & Akyollu, 2021; Batista et al., 2020) successfully. The
CRM failure rates are concerning, given the investments businesses have made in CRM
systems and the vast amount of data they must analyze to meet customer expectations. If
firm leaders have a better grasp of the factors that influence system implementation,
adoption, and use, they could reduce the probability of users rejecting CRM. Firm
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leaders’ ability to inspire employees is essential to anticipating and overcoming
resistance and ensuring organizational resources can garner customer loyalty and improve
performance (Gaur & Afaq, 2020).
The literature review provides insight into scholars’ studies on leaders’ strategies
to manage change and organizational resources when implementing CRM. The total
number of references in the study was 112, of which 88% were from peer-reviewed
sources, and authors published 83% within 5 years of my expected graduation.
References included journal articles, dissertations, doctoral studies, government websites,
and books. This review covers a critical analysis and synthesis of literature related to the
conceptual framework used for the study and CRM-specific research. Most of the
literature was peer-reviewed articles, seminal papers, scholarly journals, and books. Refer
to Table 1 for a summary of the articles.
Table 1
Summary Statistics of Research Articles Used in This Study
Description
Number
Percent of total
References used that were 5 years old or less
94
83%
References used that were not 5 years old or less
19
17%
References older than 5 years that were seminal
8
7%
Peer-reviewed references
99
88%
Non peer-reviewed references
14
12%
Total references used in the study
113
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I used the Walden University Library, Business Source Complete, ABI/INFORM
Collection, Academic Search Complete, APA PsycInfo, Emerald Insight, Taylor &
Francis, Complementary Index, SocINDEX with Full Text, ScholarWorks, and Google
scholar for this study. I searched key terms relating to CRM, such as CRM, CRM
implementation, CRM software, CRM leadership, CRM culture, CRM capabilities, CRM
practices, and CRM project failure. I also searched for terms relating to technology
adoption, such as resistance to change, user resistance, readiness to change, IT
implementation, IT adoption, and IS implementation. Last, I searched for terms related to
change management, such as change management, Kotter’s 8-step change management
model, status quo bias, customer retention, customer acquisition, and employee
satisfaction. I organized the literature review by major themes germane to my research
question: CRM evolution and definition, research trends, creating a climate for change,
engaging the entire organization for change, and implementing and sustaining change
using a change management model. These significant themes led me to use Kotter’s 8-
step change management model as my study's conceptual framework/lens.
I approached the literature review by stating the purpose statement and providing
a chronological overview of CRM tracing its intellectual progression. I then narrowed the
discourse to key themes that supported the research question, describing how the
conceptual framework informed how I investigated the research problem. I concluded the
literature review by identifying opportunities for future research. This qualitative multiple
case study explored strategies firm leaders used to manage change and organizational
resources when implementing CRM.
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With the volume, speed, and scope of technology transformations, employees
want assurance that CRM will not be another useless, overly complex, and cumbersome
tool deployed in isolation by a single department (Nguyen et al., 2020). For employees
who acquiesce because of corporate mandates or out of fear of punishment, CRM may
become a de-motivator and burden that leads to increased administrative tasks (L. Koziol
& M. Koziol, 2020). Kotter et al. (2004) warned leaders not to shove significant projects
down employees’ throats but to prepare the organization. Organizational preparation, a
key component of organizational change, entails firm leaders anticipating and chipping
away at severe barriers to improvement before implementing change by inquiring,
observing, engaging, and encouraging team members. Organizational preparedness also
encompasses aligning the organizational structure and business processes around CRM
users, communicating a vision and intended outcomes, and sharing CRM benefits.
Implications for Social Change
The findings from this study may have a positive effect on social change in SMEs
because improved CRM implementation and use may lead to new business prospects and
affect sales orders and, thus, firm revenue. As a result, firms might have extra money to
increase involvement in local CSR programs like offering employees a quarterly paid
week of service, funding paid internships for local high school and college students and
collaborating with local community organizations to provide low-income residents or
single parents with free online career training. Firm leaders should have more time and
resources to devote to focusing on increasing firm engagement in programs that help the
local economy.
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The Evolution of Customer Relationship Management
Managing customer data, a crucial role in marketing and sales operations, is
imperative for building long-term, sustainable customer relationships (Ilao & Pingrey,
2021). Since the 1950s, beginning with the invention of the Rolodex that lived on office
desks, business executives have been searching for ways to capture, manage, and analyze
customer data to improve customer relationships (Ilao & Pingrey, 2021). In the 1960s,
companies began digitizing the growing amount of customer information they once
stored on handwritten Rolodexes. In the late 1980s, manufacturing companies began
using the ACT software database to manage customer data (Ilao & Pingrey, 2021). Over
time, building customer relationships and managing customer data evolved into a
strategic business operations process resulting in firms selecting profitable customers and
determining how to gain insight into customer needs.
In 1993, Tom Sibel, the founder of Siebel Systems, coined the three-letter
acronym CRM for business (Buttle, 2009). In 1997, CRM emerged in academics (Labus
& Stone, 2010). Researchers still today debate over appropriate CRM definitions and
CRM’s value (Shukla & Pattnaik, 2019). Since the late 1990s, many researchers and
practitioners have posed various CRM definitions and have attempted to articulate its
primary focus, but CRM is still unclear (Azhakarraja, 2020).
In 2010, Greenberg defined CRM and its successor CRM 2.0, which modernizes
CRM with the addition of social technologies as a philosophy and business strategy
supported by technology that aims to enhance business and customer interactions.
Greenberg’s reference to philosophy alludes to CRM’s purpose and value, which
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management and information science scholars debate. The strategy component of
Greenberg’s CRM definition and Shukla and Pattnaik’s (2019) refers to how businesses
rely on CRM for processes and tactics to retain customers. Contemporary firms no longer
view CRM as just an IT-based tool. Shukla and Pattnaik conceptualized CRM as a
mature concept and strategic indulgence that combine strategy, tactics, and technology.
Greenberg and Shukla and Pattnaik identified a need to continually incorporate social
media into CRM to make CRM relevant and dynamic and enhance customer experiences.
Unlike Greenberg’s definition, which was limited to the business environment, Shukla
and Pattnaik’s contemporary CRM description encompassed the entire economy.
Notwithstanding the ongoing debate over CRM’s definition and effectiveness,
researchers have agreed that CRM’s purpose is to assist businesses in managing
customer relationships and interactions (Al-Weshah et al., 2019; Greenberg, 2010;
Shukla & Pattnaik, 2019; Wang & Lien, 2019). Like Greenberg (2010) and Shukla and
Pattnaik (2019), Al-Weshah et al. (2019) described CRM as a business management
strategy and process for managing customer relationships, yet they took it a step further.
Al-Weshah et al. envisioned businesses utilizing CRM to introduce new and innovative
products and services to cater to existing customers and appeal to new ones. Wang and
Lien (2019) conceptualized CRM as the most popular component of an enterprise
information system, which includes five information systems: CRM, enterprise resource
planning (ERP), supply chain management, product data management, and business
intelligence and analytics. However, according to Wang and Lien, CRM is the only
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Executive Information System component whose main objective is to help marketing and
sales personnel manage customers.
As an enterprise information tool, Gaur and Afaq (2020) defined modern CRM as
the convergence of customer relationship marketing strategies, customer data
management, and crucial CRM technologies integrated with multiple data sources. CRM
plays a pivotal role in ensuring that a company’s customer service, marketing, and sales
departments collaborate for the benefit of customers (Gaur & Afaq, 2020). Lastly, Batista
et al. (2020) provided a comprehensive, modern viewpoint of CRM: “[T]he strategic use
of information, processes, technology, and people to manage the customer relationships
with the firm” (p. 496). CRM definitions and conceptualizations have been evolving
since CRM’s inception. Selected authors have also covered numerous research topics,
such as the CRM approach, culture, benefits, implementation, and postimplementation
challenges in various industries and markets.
CRM Research Trends
Some of the critical concepts prevalent in recent CRM research include using
CRM to improve customer satisfaction, the adverse effects of CRM usage, CRM’s impact
on business innovation and processes, CRM project failure with limited focus on
successful implementations, top management support, organizing around CRM, CRM
implementation, and CRM usefulness. In the following sections, I expand on these
concepts beginning with a high-level tabular summary of literature reviews in Table 2
and Table 3.
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Table 2
Summary of Relevant CRM Research Trends From 1999 to 2020
Period
Literature review
Start
date
End
date
No. of
years Subject No. of
articles Researcher Key classifications or
themes
2007
2016
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CRM trends
56
Sota et al. (2018)
Refer to Table 4
2000 2020 20 CRM failure 104
Meena and Sahu
(2021)
Refer to the note
below the table
2015 2019 4
CRM impact on
business
innovation
17 Guerola-Navarro et
al. (2021a)
Customer retention
and process
innovation
1999 2019 20 Adverse effects of
CRM usage 159 Nguyen et al.
(2020)
Context,
interventions,
mechanisms, and
outcomes
Total
336
Note. The following key themes and examples apply to Sota et al.’s (2018) literature
review. CRM context: weak strategy and support, poor application, lack of focus on
developing long-term customer relationships. CRM interventions (psychological drivers):
Unfairness, distrust, opportunism, lack of transparency. CRM mechanisms (B2B and
B2C): negative word-of-mouth, complaints, revenge, anger, conflicts, failures,
relationship termination, and lawsuits. CRM outcomes (critical issues): unclear strategy
and governance, sales-focused instead of customer-focused, conscious capitalism
(purpose should transcend profitability).
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Table 3
Summary of Key Findings
Subject
Researcher
Key findings
Adverse effects of
CRM
Nguyen et al. (2020)
The authors created a conceptual model
showing how CRM outcomes (i.e., success
or failure) are contingent on implementation
contexts, interventions, and mechanisms.
CRM failure
Meena & Sahu (2021)
CRM’s popularity increased in data mining,
software, technology management,
knowledge management, artificial
intelligence, and knowledge management.
The frequency of technology variables in
studies decreased. Literature focused more
on CRM strategy and management (56%)
than technology (13%).
CRM trends
Sota et al. (2018)
The authors classified 58.82% of the articles
under customer retention and 64.71% under
process innovation. Studies lacked
conceptual and qualitative research and did
not keep pace with CRM’s popularity.
CRM impact on
business innovation
Guerola-Navarro et al.
(2021a)
Most of the joint CRM and innovation
papers focused on helping companies use
CRM to retain customers.
CRM Benefits: 2007 to 2016
Over the years, many scholars have analyzed CRM literature. Sota et al. (2018)
attempted a literature review of CRM studies from 2007 to 2016, analyzing 56 papers
from 10 scholarly marketing journals with 4,633 citations. Sota et al. conducted the
review to analyze CRM trends and, as a result, categorized 21 of the 56 CRM studies as
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loyalty program-related instead of information technology. The prominence of customer
loyalty programs in CRM literature may reveal a shift from CRM evolution, antecedents,
definitions, processes, and technology to research geared toward helping marketers
understand how to leverage CRM to help maintain customer loyalty to retain customers.
According to Sota et al., CRM studies from 2007 to 2016 lacked conceptual and
qualitative research and did not keep pace with CRM’s popularity.
CRM Classifications: 2000 to 2020
Motivated to understand CRM’s high failure rate, Meena and Sahu (2021)
searched for relevant, peer-reviewed CRM articles from 2000 to 2020. The authors
classified 104 papers identifying significant themes, the most and least researched areas,
gaps, and trends. Meena and Sahu organized papers by study type, source, year, country,
data collection type and tools, and industry. Table 4 includes a synopsis of Meena and
Sahu’s classifications.
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Table 4
Meena and Sahu’s (2021) CRM Research: Key Classifications
Key classification
Finding
Top publication year:
2020 (15% of the articles)
Top publication:
Journals (95%)
Top location of publication:
India (20%)
The United States (15%)
The United Kingdom (7%)
Top three industries:
Insurance (24%), banking (22%), financial services
(11%), and tourism and hospitality (11%)
Most prevalent types of papers:
Cause and effect empirical papers (42%)
Conceptual studies (37%)
The least prevalent types of papers:
Case studies (2%)
Descriptive studies (3%)
The most popular source of data:
Questionnaires (78%)
Interviews (19%)
The least popular source of data:
Focused groups (1%)
Group discussions (1%)
Top methodology:
Structural equation modeling (13%)
Cronbach alpha (12%)
Correlation (9%)
Based on the articles in the review, CRM’s popularity increased in data mining,
software, technology management, knowledge management, artificial intelligence, and
knowledge management. Despite the slight increase in CRM technology-related research,
the frequency of technology variables in studies decreased. As such, researchers and
academics are more laser-focused on CRM strategy and management (56%) than
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technology (13%), evident by the number of variables that fall under strategy and
management variables.
CRM’s Impact on Business Innovation Policies: 2015 to 2019
To grasp CRM’s impact on business innovation policies and assert that CRM is a
powerful business tool used to manage customer relationships, Guerola-Navarro et al.
(2021a) reviewed 17 pertinent studies published from 2015 to 2019. The authors selected
business-oriented studies using ‘CRM’ and ‘Innovation’ as keywords when searching
scholarly journals via the Web of Science database. Guerola-Navarro et al. conducted a
qualitative, descriptive study to analyze and classify articles based on CRM dimensions,
followed by innovation dimensions by year. For example, Guerola-Navarro et al.
classified Cruz-Jesus et al.’s 2019 CRM adoption study as ‘process innovation,’ which
fell under ‘customer retention’ within the CRM dimension, as firms typically adopt CRM
to build customer loyalty and retain customers. Of the 17 selected studies, the authors
classified 58.82% under ‘customer retention’ and 64.71% under ‘process innovation’
within the ‘innovation’ dimension. Guerola-Navarro et al.’s study revealed that most of
the joint CRM and innovation papers published during this period (Cruz-Jesus et al.,
2019; Elfarmawi, 2019; Zand et al., 2018) focused on helping companies use CRM to
retain customers.
CRM’s Adverse Effects
While plenty of companies implement CRM to retain customers or acquire new
ones, Nguyen et al. (2020) explored the adverse side effects of CRM usage, such as the
psychological drivers and behavioral consequences of managing CRM. The authors
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referred to CRM’s adverse side effects as the dark side when a person or entity uses CRM
data to take advantage of customers, employees, or stakeholders. Nguyen et al.’s
literature review included an analysis of 159 relative sources. Using the articles’ key
themes, the authors developed a theoretical framework of perception, behavior, and
consequences within the context of CRM implementations. The theoretical construct’s
psychological variables (also known as interventions) included unfairness, distrust,
opportunism, and lack of transparency. In their literature review, Nguyen et al.
emphasized the importance of ensuring CRM implementations have a long-term strategic
focus that enables customers to have a balanced perception of CRM’s utility relative to
organizational profitability, commercialization, sustainability, and social responsibility.
Strategies for Managing Change to Implement CRM
Establish a Sense of Urgency
Despite CRM’s popularity and seeming necessity, 70 to 80% of CRM projects
fail, are abandoned, or are never launched (Chen et al., 2020; Delpechitre et al., 2019;
Deshmukh et al., 2020; Ngo & Vu, 2021). CRM implementation failure motivated my
study and those of numerous other researchers and practitioners. Researchers and
practitioners are cognizant of a myriad of impediments pervasive in unsuccessful CRM
projects, such as lack of executive sponsorship and top management support (Batista et
al., 2020; Deshmukh et al., 2020), poor managerial structure (Al-Omoush et al., 2021),
lack of planning and unclear objectives (Nelson et al., 2020), lack of user involvement
(Aydin & Akyollu, 2021; Deshmukh et al., 2020), and poor change management (Batista
et al., 2020; Deshmukh et al., 2020). These factors affect how organizations and
23
individuals regard CRM (Al-Omoush et al., 2021). Additional deterrents or
implementation risks include technology overload (Delpechitre et al., 2019),
implementation complexity (Tazkarji & Stafford, 2020), poor CRM and IT integration
(Meena & Sahu, 2021; Tazkarji & Stafford, 2020), and lack of technical competence
(Cruz-Jesus et al., 2019). Even with successful implementations, CRM alone does
guarantee firm survival.
One of the worst mistakes leaders make when attempting an organizational
change or transformation is careening forward without building a high sense of urgency
among employees and managers (Kotter, 1996; Kotter et al., 2004). For most salespeople,
according to Labus and Stone (2010), CRM is software hindering them from performing
their jobs. In Labus and Stone’s, leaders following a software-centric approach to
establish a high sense of urgency among salespeople failed to deliver long-term results.
Labus and Stone and Aydin and Akyollu (2021) found that salespeople’s resistance to
adopting and using CRM was problematic. In Labus and Stone’s study, leadership and an
integrated strategy—not software—were crucial to reducing complacency and garnering
cooperation among salespeople.
There is a lack of empirical research on the influence of CRM on sales
performance (Aydin & Akyollu, 2021; Chen et al., 2021; Elfarmawi, 2019; Wang &
Lien, 2019). When leaders and managers defeat salespeople’s resistance to using CRM,
CRM has proved essential in assisting salespeople in finding leads, meeting prospective
customers, and positively impacting sales performance (Aydin & Akyollu, 2021).
Salespeople with a sense of urgency who adopt and use CRM effectively can achieve
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these results and maintain momentum to ensure change sticks. In the following sections, I
explored leaders’ roles in building the guiding team, creating the vision and strategy,
engaging organizational resources, and implementing CRM.
Build a Guiding Team of Organizational Resources
CRM is a global IT change management project replete with risks that, if
mismanaged, increase the probability of failure (Deshmukh et al., 2020). Deshmukh et al.
investigated how including project managers and their risk management process impacted
CRM, while Suoniemi et al. (2022) examined under what conditions hiring consultants
affected CRM implementations. Deshmukh et al. found that project managers play a
critical role in managing personnel issues, which, if unaddressed, contribute to project
failure. Suoniemi et al. found that CRM consultants’ success depended on user
involvement. Even with a CRM consultant, user involvement was essential to coping
with CRM complexity and requirements uncertainty (Suoniemi et al., 2022). Both
Deshmukh et al.’s and Suoniemi et al.’s studies validate Kotter and Cohen’s belief that
influential leaders who are successful at change first find creative ways to compel
relevant people to engage and act. Suoniemi et al. emphasized that leaders should spare
no effort to garner end-user commitment, empower personnel across the organization,
and integrate CRM into the firm’s IT architecture.
It is unambiguous that firm leaders should assign credible and trustworthy CRM
consultants, project managers, and IT resources to empower others to act. This effort is
crucial to stakeholders realizing the benefits they anticipate from CRM. With essential
resources in place, the CRM project manager or consultant should seek agreement on
25
why CRM is required, the company-wide objectives, and the intended benefits. The CRM
project manager or consultant should also ascertain how the firm defines success and
recommend a process for evaluating CRM performance. Additionally, top managers’
distinctive and dynamic capabilities contribute to identifying, structuring, and mobilizing
organizational resources that are flexible, adaptable, cooperative, collaborative, and
credible. Badrinarayanan et al. (2019) offered insight into how dynamic managers
orchestrate corporate resources to drive CRM implementation and performance. Firm
leaders select leaders and managers with superior managerial capabilities (i.e., social
capital) to determine which key individuals can help articulate the vision and persuade
others to embrace the company’s goals.
CRM Vision and Strategy
With modern CRM research shifting from technology and software capabilities to
management and strategy (Meena & Sahu, 2021), successful CRM implementations have
some common findings. Firm leaders oversee determining CRM strategy and vision
(Dalla Pozza et al., 2018; Shukla & Pattnaik, 2019), prioritizing investments in CRM
activities (Jager, 2021), and organizing around CRM (Badrinarayanan et al., 2019; Dalla
Pozza et al., 2018). After surveying 350 managers and CRM experts to investigate the
impact of the implementation time in different CRM dimensions on performance, Dalla
Pozza et al. identified strategy implementation as the most vital driver of CRM
performance in the United States. Dalla Pozza et al. also found that organizational
alignment, for example, was not directly related to growth per se. However,
organizational alignment ‘activity delays’ negatively affect customer acquisition,
26
development, and loyalty. Accordingly, based on Dalla Pozza et al.’s findings, CRM
strategy implementation and timely organizational alignment are critical determinants of
a firm’s CRM performance.
Strategies for Managing Organizational Resources to Implement CRM
Communicate the Vision and Strategy and Empower the Organization
While leadership communicates the CRM vision and strategy, the vision and
design may not be that of the firm leader but result from the leader eliciting
brainstorming to create the appropriate vision (Kotter et al., 2004). In a CRM business
culture, leaders and managers are instrumental in creating an exciting culture to empower
organizational resources to recognize the value of using CRM to acquire, assimilate, and
exploit customer knowledge (Chaithanapat et al., 2022). CRM is not just a tool, nor is it
just a technology platform. CRM is a philosophy, business strategy, and business practice
(Greenberg, 2010). Those charged with communicating the process should believe and
express to others that firms that do not implement CRM, regardless of size, location, or
industry, are at a competitive disadvantage (Bakator et al., 2021). Regardless of CRM’s
popularity or its touted benefits, complacent or perhaps pessimistic employees will
naturally be reluctant to use it. Firms should approach CRM as a philosophical, cultural,
and organizational change critical for improving customer satisfaction and firm
performance.
Empower Others to Act
CRM requires a plan and agreement on how the organization will approach,
implement, use, and manage CRM and how CRM will integrate into the organization.
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Before Batista et al.’s (2020) study, the literature primarily ignored empowering
employees with customer insights. Batista et al. researched the relationships between the
CRM approach (i.e., staff empowerment) and organizational responsiveness (i.e., firm-
level strategic action), suggesting that CRM adoption commences with customer-oriented
business strategies and includes the complete company ecosystem. Batista et al. found
that the CRM approach improved organizational responsiveness, system effectiveness,
and staff empowerment—all vital characteristics of mature unified companies. Batista et
al. shed light on the importance of integrating customer knowledge into a company’s core
operational processes, entrenching CRM within the organization, and having motivated
employees use CRM to its fullest extent.
Although firms spend a great deal on CRM strategy implementation and
organizational alignment, Azhakarraja (2020) believes it is uncommon to embrace CRM
as a strategic, firm-wide project fully. Azhakarraja refers to how numerous firms engage
in some form of CRM, yet only a few integrate both front-end and back-end processes
and data within CRM. In addition to investing time, money, and invaluable resources to
fully deploy CRM, firm leaders should ensure they have designated sufficient and
appropriately trained and skilled resources. Resources (i.e., managers, consultants,
project managers, and IT) are needed for front-to-back integration to help establish and
sustain a CRM culture of shared values and norms and to champion change management
(Azhakarraja, 2020). Even if unintentional, misuse, mismanagement, underutilization,
overuse, or poor integration of CRM can contribute to implementation failure.
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Thakur and Srivastava (2018), in their study on 276 middle managers, found that
willingness to change (dependent variable) reduced the impact of employee resistance to
change (independent variable). Trust, emotional attachment, and perceived organizational
support (mediating variables) mediated the effects of the relationship between readiness
to change and resistance to change. Employees inherently fight change, so leaders should
prepare to address resistance proactively. Leaders should handle employees with care to
support them while employees contemplate the need for change and the organization’s
ability to adapt successfully. Firm leaders/top managers might appreciate Thakur and
Srivastava’s research because the authors depicted how leaders’ understanding of
employees’ psyche and needs and valuing their input can help conquer employee
resistance to organizational change.
Good CRM Culture
CRM’s primary goal is to give decision makers a comprehensive understanding of
their customers and create opportunities to put vital customers at the heart of business
efforts. One may argue that extensive technology usage indicates a strong CRM culture
free of employee opposition, enabling firms to adapt to changing business conditions.
Guerola-Navarro et al. (2021b) surveyed decision makers to determine if there was a
relationship between CRM practices (technology use and CRM culture) and innovation
(process and product innovation) in the wine production and distribution sector in Spain.
Elfarmawi’s (2019) earlier study on the relationship between CRM usage, product
innovation, and customer satisfaction had a similar focus to Guerola-Navarro et al.’s
(2021b). Yet, Elfarmawi targeted small and medium-sized enterprises in the United
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States. When Guerola-Navarro et al. (2021b) used the term culture of CRM, the authors
referred to any idea, plan of action, or practice associated with effective CRM and a
positive customer-focused culture. Product innovation is how companies adapt, improve,
and compete in a global market.
Guerola-Navarro et al. (2021b) assumed the following conditions must be met for
a good culture to exist: the culture must be plagued by information sharing, customer
involvement, long-term partnership, and joint problem-solving. Guerola-Navarro et al.
and Elfarmawi confirmed several assumptions and findings based on survey responses.
For a corporation to function well, employees should use CRM intensively (Chen et al.,
2021; Guerola-Navarro et al., 2021a), or a robust CRM culture must be in place. While
the findings demonstrate that a strong CRM culture positively impacts firm performance,
innovation had little bearing on performance in either study (Elfarmawi, 2019; Guerola-
Navarro et al., 2021b). Elfarmawi’s findings demonstrate that CRM’s primary purpose is
to provide better customer service rather than to give companies ideas for new go-to-
market goods and services. When employees identify with their organization (i.e., the
organization’s reputation, communication climate, and leaders’ motivating language),
they become culturally invested (Mayfield et al., 2021). From management,
technological, and cultural perspectives, CRM is essential for business success.
Create Short-Term Wins
Chen et al. (2021) examined how 600 customer service employees who worked
for a large fortune 500 telecom service firm used CRM to satisfy customers. Chen et al.
used the information systems (IS) success framework to conceptualize the mechanisms
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underlying post-implementation CRM success in service encounters. Based on
employees’ self-assessments, most were using the system to its fullest potential. As usage
behaviors that generate no performance impact are of little value, Chen et al. also
collected customer service data from customers. Based on the customer data, employees’
post-adoptive infusion use (post-implementation usage behavior), which expands beyond
external use, led to customer satisfaction. According to Chen et al. (2021), Sundaram et
al.’s (2007) research was the only earlier study that provided evidence that sales teams’
infusion use of CRM led to better sales outcomes.
While there is a great deal of extant literature on CRM failure, literature neglects
to address firms that have implemented CRM yet still struggle to determine how to
integrate CRM into organizations fully. Deploying CRM and increasing system users
does not automatically equate to improved work performance or delighted customers.
While Chen et al. (2021) believed infusion was the secret to success for organizations
troubled by low return on investment, Azhakarraja (2020) and Nguyen et al. (2020) found
success in the context of CRM to be far more complex. Success is using the system as
designed and intended, seeing the benefits of system use, and not overusing it. Businesses
that empower employees to use CRM and demonstrate how to do so may experience
more success than those that merely convince employees to log on.
Crosthwaite and Sittrop (2021) believed that the change management process
directly affected CRM performance. With these multiple perspectives, what is apparent in
all cases is that managers and employees are involved and communicating in all
successful cases. Managers are essential in painting a picture for employees and helping
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them envision a future state if they use CRM (Crosthwaite & Sittrop, 2021). Doing so
may also positively impact employee morale and create short-term wins that inspire
employees to stay engaged and sustain their level of system usage beyond the initial
implementation period.
Implementing and Sustaining Change
CRM has historically failed to meet executives’ expectations, insinuating that
executives have a vision, strategy, and goals and communicating them before initializing
CRM. Executives should solicit input and strive to elicit consensus on firm-wide goals
and success factors before implementing and evaluating CRM. At a high level, it may
behoove firm leaders to deploy CRM to improve operational capabilities and
performance, customer satisfaction, increase efficiencies and profitability, and extend the
customer life cycle. As firm leaders identify their objectives and confirm the decision to
move forward, they should also be aware of extant research on the antecedents of
successful and unsuccessful CRM implementations. Researchers believe there is a
shortage of evidence proving that integrating CRM increases a company’s success
(Elfarmawi, 2019; Meena & Sahu, 2021). However, several researchers have explored
how CRM may impact a company (Badrinarayanan et al., 2019; Batista et al., 2020; Chen
et al., 2020; Cruz-Jesus et al., 2019; Deshmukh et al., 2020). Others have explored how
CRM implementation and adoption enhance business performance (Chen et al., 2020;
Delpechitre et al., 2019; Herman et al., 2021; Kim et al., 2019; Oh & Ma, 2018;
Rodriguez et al., 2018; Zang et al., 2020).
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Don’t Let Up
CRM system adoption and increased use behavior render positive organizational
performance, such as improved customer service, customer retention and growth, and
new customer acquisitions. Even in the case of voluntary or involuntary usage, Beaudry
et al. (2020) contend that use does not automatically equate with acceptance, and
acceptance does not necessarily convert to productive use. According to Beaudry et al.’s
study, IS researchers have primarily focused on user acceptance and conformance while
ignoring alternative behavioral dynamics and results (e.g., users who accept but do not
conform to system usage terms). Additionally, users that resist CRM may not contribute
to failure, as resistance is not necessarily an indication of misuse or non-use, despite the
implication (Beaudry et al., 2020). Acceptance and adoption do not automatically result
in users complying and using the system as intended.
While Beaudry et al. suggest that practitioners and researchers avoid narrowly
contributing a binary value of good or bad to users’ purposeful or inadvertent behaviors,
organizations must understand what defines success and failure. Organizations should
contemplate if attributing such a high de facto value to CRM is appropriate. CRM’s
appeal and potential success motivate executives to embrace some form of CRM to
compete in a global marketplace and uncover and avoid factors contributing to project
failure. Organizations invest in CRM because of competitive threats, social pressures,
cultural norms, and organizational intent. Investing is not a deterrence to loss. According
to Kamarudzaman and Jambari (2021), project failure can occur at any stage but often
ensues during implementation. Post-implementation adoption success relies heavily on
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employees’/users’ perceptions of leadership’s approach and change management
strategy, as well as users’ acceptance behaviors (Kamarudzaman & Jambari, 2021).
Making Change Stick
Research on user resistance and system adoption spans multiple industries,
including education, manufacturing, consulting, banking, healthcare, insurance, and
hospitality (Alzahrani et al., 2021; Shankar & Nigam, 2021). Research shows a growing
interest in employee resistance and technology adoption for diverse user behaviors (from
resistance to extensive use) and organizational impact (Beaudry et al., 2020). Several
researchers have addressed employee resistance and technology adoption (Alzahrani et
al., 2021; Beaudry et al., 2020; Chatterjee et al., 2020; Kamarudzaman & Jambari, 2021;
Shankar & Nigam, 2021; Shirish & Batuekueno, 2021; Thakur & Srivastava, 2018).
Recently, IS researchers have employed a wide range of lenses to examine system
adoption and resistance behaviors:
Davis’s (1989) technology acceptance model (TAM; Chatterjee et al., 2020;
Shankar & Datta, 2018),
Kim and Kankanhalli’s (2009) user resistance model (URM; Choi et al.,
2021),
Lewin’s (1947) 3-step change model (Kamarudzaman & Jambari, 2021),
Rogers and Cartano’s (1962) diffusion of innovation (Goh & Sigala, 2020),
Samuelson and Zeckhauser’s (1988) status quo bias theory (Alzahrani et al.,
2021; Shankar & Nigam, 2021; Shirish & Batuekueno, 2021), and
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Venkatesh et al.’s (2003) unified theory of acceptance and use technology
(UTAUT; Ben Arfi et al., 2021).
To analyze CRM adoption and employee behavior, researchers have applied
management theories, such as TAM (Chatterjee et al., 2020; Wang & Lien, 2019),
grounded theory (Tazkarji & Stafford, 2020), resource-based theory (Badrinarayanan et
al., 2019), motivation theories (Nelson et al., 2020), and change management models
(Crosthwaite & Sittrop, 2021). I recognized the applicability and potential of Kotter’s 8-
step change management model (KCMM) to explore successful change approaches amid
employee resistance rather than narrowly focusing on technology or motivation. Change
management models have not been used broadly in CRM or IS-related scholarly
literature. A literature review of CRM studies revealed the following: one study used
Kotter’s change management model (Crosthwaite & Sittrop, 2021), one used Lewin’s
change model (Jami Pour & Hosseinzadeh, 2021), and one used Hiatt’s Prosci ADKAR
change model (Mirzoyan & Tovmasyan, 2022). While Kotter’s method is limited in
CRM literature, Khatteeb (2021) used Kotter’s model with an ERP study, and Shonhe
and Grand (2019) used Kotter’s model with an electronic records management system
(ERMS) study. Relative to broader literature, Kotter’s change model has successfully
guided change in education (Haas et al., 2020; Kang et al., 2022; Wentworth et al., 2020)
and healthcare (Baloh et al., 2018).
Anchoring Change: Using the Kotter Change Management Model
For this study, I used Kotter’s 8-step change management model as the
conceptual lens to explore strategies firm leaders used to manage change and
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organizational resources when implementing CRM. Before choosing KCMM, I
scrutinized Lewin’s (1947) three-step change model and Kotter’s (1996) 8-step change
model. I also reviewed Peters et al.’s (1980) 7-S framework, a descriptive change
management model. Burnes (2020) argues that Kurt Lewin, a German Jew, psychologist,
and social activist, designed the three-step model to resolve racism and anti-Semitism and
not to address organizational change. According to some recent studies (Bose, 2020;
Burnes, 2020), Lewin's model, which includes unfreezing, moving, and freezing has
received criticism, mainly because it is simplistic due to its three linear and prescriptive
steps. Burnes found that Lewin's model was not straightforward but a robust method for
comprehending human behavior and how behavior can change. Additionally, Pregmark
(2022) claims that Lewin’s model does not address resistance. According to Bose (2020),
Lewin addresses the forces against change (i.e., resistance) in the second stage (moving)
of the model. To apply Lewin's physics-based three-step model to organizational change,
researchers must interpret and translate his terminology into a language most individuals
can comprehend (Burnes, 2020). Lewin's model was not the most appropriate for this
study due to its origins, nomenclature, mathematical notations, and ambiguous
terminology.
Organizations that successfully implement large-scale change use a top-down,
linear approach to change management (Kotter et al., 2004). According to Kotter and
Cohen, achieving measurable enhancements in business performance is a prerequisite for
any change initiative. Defining change and establishing a vision and strategy are critical
steps that leaders should pursue early in the process (Kotter et al., 2004). The vision,
36
which depicts a future date, should be aligned with the organization's strategy (Errida &
Lotfi, 2021; Kotter et al., 2004). Even with a well-defined and articulated vision and
strategy, a large-scale change that lacks stakeholder support and employee engagement
may fail.
Despite the criticism that traditional change models do not keep pace with the
current competitive and more innovative environment, researchers still choose traditional
models like Kotter's over more modern models (Rosenbaum et al., 2018). Kotter's model
continues to complement organizations' hierarchical nature and address long-term
projects' technical, social, and cultural implications (Khatteeb, 2021). Kotter's model is a
straightforward set of process-related tasks designed to assist leaders in preparing their
organizations for transformative change (Errida & Lotfi, 2021). According to Wentworth
et al. (2020), KCMM is one of the most widely used models for analyzing changes in
large organizations. Wentworth et al. further note that KCMM appeals due to Kotter’s
effectiveness in implementing the model to drive change initiatives in real-world business
organizations.
Change management refers to a process-related tool that change management
professionals, leaders, and managers use to assess organizational readiness
(Kamarudzaman & Jambari, 2021). Entrepreneur and Harvard University professor Dr.
John P. Kotter established the 8-step change model in his 1996 book, Leading Change.
Kotter (1996) identified eight steps (described in Figure 1) for achieving organizational
change management success, which winning firms employ:
Step 1: Create a sense of urgency
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Step 2: Build/form the guiding team/coalition
Step 3: Create the vision, strategies, and initiatives
Step 4: Convey the vision and strategy to managers, employees, and
stakeholders to obtain buy-in
Step 5: Empower others to action
Step 6: Create short-term wins
Step 7: Don’t let up; sustain momentum and acceleration
Step 8: Make change stick (i.e., incorporate changes into the culture)
Figure 1
Kotter’s (1996) 8-Step Change Management Model
Kotter’s model includes a variety of process-related tasks to assist
leaders/managers prepare their organizations for transformational change. While Kotter
introduced his 8-step change model in Leading Change (1996), he analyzed the
fundamental issues people encounter when implementing change in The Heart of Change
38
(Kotter et al., 2004). According to Kotter and Cohen, firms that successfully implement
large-scale change follow a top-down, linear change management approach. Kotter’s
teleological change model, depicted in Figure 1, is a clear, straightforward, and linear
process for managing change. In the following section, I included an overview of each
step in Kotter’s change model.
First Step: Establish a Sense of Urgency
In the first step of Kotter’s model, leaders take a series of actions or leverage a
crisis to help others see and feel the problem (Kotter et al., 2004). Successful CRM
change initiatives begin with transformational leaders listening to more than just a few
employees’, partners’, or suppliers’ concerns (Kotter et al., 2004). When handled
effectively, people (i.e., managers, employees, and others) believe what they see and feel,
realize change is required, and are ready for the change process (Kotter et al., 2004). A
leader who communicates openly and honestly gives facts supporting the necessity and
urgency for change.
In Kotter and Cohen’s Videotape of the Angry Customer, Wallace learned that the
customer was angry at dinner with one of his company’s largest customers. The customer
was mad because Wallace’s company sent him defective built-to-order products that cost
him to correct. Wallace asked the customer’s permission to videotape him. Within a day,
around 50 people in a conference room at Wallace’s company viewed a video of this
customer speaking candidly. After more than 500 employees eventually watched the
video, most were surprised, and a small minority were skeptical. Yet, the videotape was
indispensable in helping Wallace chip away at barriers to improvement and motivating
39
the organization to take action. Before seeing and hearing the angry customer on video,
employees were completing tasks but not listening to customers.
Using KCMM, Crosthwaite and Sittrop (2021) interviewed 17 participants from
three levels (functional, management, and extended management board) across six
departments to determine how an organization may better its change management in the
context of CRM adoption. The researchers determined from the semistructured
participant interviews that for step one of the change process, participants wanted their
leaders/managers to improve how they conveyed a sense of urgency in communicating
useable and meaningful data, the why, and knowledge management (Crosthwaite &
Sittrop, 2021). Participants did not see, feel, or understand why the company needed
CRM or why they should appreciate it. For this reason, Crosthwaite and Sittrop
concluded that all guiding team members should participate in establishing and
communicating a sense of urgency and vision. Due to the sequential nature of the change
model, once the change leader forms the guiding coalition in step 2, the leader and all
guiding team members should collaborate to refine the event or issues that prompted the
sense of urgency.
Second Step: Form a Guiding Coalition
Presuming firm leaders address step 1 effectively, success in step 2 is contingent
on having a guiding team of the right mix of strategic people with capacity, credibility,
skills, knowledge, connections, and stature (Kang et al., 2022; Kotter et al., 2004). The
project leader’s credibility, transparency, and disposition are essential for creating an
opportunity for the guiding team to develop and shape effective strategies (Kang et al.,
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2022). The guiding team should include trusted and skilled change agents with an
emotional commitment to do the job (Kotter et al., 2004). Guiding team members should
be in a position of power and capable of translating the vision and strategy into a picture
of a future state that appeals to employees. The guiding team should also be capable of
breaking through the status quo to inspire members to move from a known to an
unknown state without much resistance (Thakur & Srivastava, 2018). According to
Kotter and Cohen, no one wants to confront those who are not doing their job, yet the
right guiding team is evolving and requires exchanging old members for new ones who
understand their roles.
In Kotter and Cohen’s New and More Diverse Team, once there were no more
companies to acquire, a company shifted its business model to focus on organic growth.
The small, homogeneous group had to transition from something they were familiar with
to something foreign—internal growth. The COO thus invited people from different
functional areas at different levels of the company who were diverse in abilities,
viewpoints, and backgrounds to join a team charged with providing a new perspective on
building the future. The COO handpicked individuals with the credibility, capabilities,
connections, and energy to carry out the tasks and grant them the required authority to
operate effectively. The team achieved a more balanced and innovative solution due to its
heterogeneity.
In Crosthwaite and Sittrop’s (2021) CRM study, the researchers surveyed
participants to identify three major success factors that applied to step 2 of Kotter’s
change process: (a) change required in organizational roles, (b) teamwork, and (c)
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heterogeneous use of CRM. Survey participants were unsure who was driving the change,
if roles and responsibilities were changed to accommodate CRM, and whether team
members were proactively communicating. As a result of the firm not having appropriate
personnel on the guiding team who understood their roles and believed in CRM, end-
users generated inaccurate and ineffective data. To minimize these risks, companies
implementing CRM should adhere to Kotter’s change model.
Third Step: Develop a Strategic Vision and Initiatives
Presuming firm leaders and the guiding coalition address steps 1 and 2, step 3’s
success is contingent on the team’s ability to paint pictures of the probable future state
(Kotter et al., 2004). The guiding team employs visuals to help others transition from
frustration to optimism as they begin to visualize viable possibilities. In each step of
KCMM, leaders can foster intellectual stimulation and inspiration, but this is their
primary focus in step 3 (Page & Schoder, 2019). In step 3, the guiding team undergoes
strategic planning to formulate the vision, mission, and strategic goals. The team
identifies the primary drivers of change, then crafts a vision and an operational, strategic
plan. From the strategic plan, the guiding team creates a sequential change management
plan encompassing the vision, goals, budget, resources, deliverables, tasks, deadlines, and
metrics (Veselinović et al., 2021). The plan should incorporate measures to identify and
mitigate employee resistance (Aydin & Akyollu, 2021; Chen et al., 2021; Thakur &
Srivastava, 2018; Veselinović et al., 2021). The strategic plan is useless if the entire
organization does not contribute and strive toward the same vision (Page & Schoder,
42
2019). The program is also meaningless if employees do not value CRM, do not use it, or
misuse it.
In Body in the Living Room story (Kotter et al., 2004), Marshall’s realtor advised
him to complete the repairs within 6 months of purchasing a 62-year-old house. Marshall
vowed to make repairs within 5 years. The realtor responded by saying, “[A]fter six
months…, [y]ou get used to stepping over the dead body in the living room” (Kotter et
al., 2004, p. 79). Marshall’s story illustrates the significance of defining the scope,
timetable, and pace of change Initiatives as part of the strategy. Lack of momentum may
contribute to project failure.
Developing a strategic vision and plans requires a strategic situation, strategic
posture or behavior, strategic thinking, and information gathering (Veselinović et al.,
2021). One of the causes of organizational failure is that organizations underestimate the
strength of the vision (Kotter, 1996; Kotter et al., 2004). Kotter describes a compelling
vision as imaginable, desirable, feasible, focused, flexible, and simple to communicate. A
clear vision can help align people. On the other hand, an ineffective vision is worse than
no vision, so organizations should take the process seriously. Leadership creates the
vision and strategies, and management creates the plans and budgets (Kotter, 2012). All
organizational members should have the same vision.
The manager should determine what the organization should do to succeed and
ensure the organization is structured and staffed to carry out tasks. Managers should be
poised and skilled at developing and following through on strategic plans. Strategic
43
planning is an iterative process that integrates diverse perspectives resulting in a
straightforward approach to achieving discernable outcomes.
Fourth Step: Convey the Vision for Buy-In
Presuming firm leaders and guiding coalition members address steps 1 through 3,
success in step 4 is contingent on the leaders and guiding coalition’s ability to
communicate the shared vision. It is also vital that the guiding team be skilled in
persuading as many people as possible to understand the concept, buy into it, and take
action to bring about the desired changes. In step 4, the essence of The Heart of Change,
leaders and the coalition seek to understand what people are feeling, foresee what
insecurities may emerge, and plan to resolve issues before initiating the change process
(Kotter et al., 2004). Kotter and Cohen suggest that the guiding team’s message be simple
to reinforce, creative, genuine, and appealing to individuals who resist change. Aujla and
Mclarney (2020) recommend that leaders educate, involve, and support individuals and
negotiate disputes before initiating change. Leaders must win over employees and
managers by appealing to their emotions and tugging at their heartstrings (Tanner, 2021).
The goal is to spend quality time explaining to as many individuals as possible why
change is necessary and how it may benefit them.
Haas et al. (2020) and Wentworth et al. (2020) applied KCMM to address
curriculum and system challenges in education. In Haas et al.’s study, practitioners used
KCMM to improve a lecture-based didactics curriculum in medical residency programs
that lacked student engagement. In Wentworth et al.’s study, a university used KCMM to
implement a new student evaluation system. In both cases, guiding coalition members
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communicated impending changes to as many individuals as possible as quickly as
possible. In Haas et al.’s study, the coalition shared its vision with other medical
residents, speakers, and stakeholders via email, in-person meetings, conferences, word-
of-mouth campaigns, and one-on-one talks. In Wentworth et al.’s study, the university
task force used training events, webinars, webpages, and one-on-one meetings to
thoroughly describe the system, answer questions, and alleviate concerns. The goal in
step 4, according to Aujla and Mclarney (2020), is to educate the whole organization,
involve them, listen to them, and resolve concerns before moving further.
Fifth Step: Empower Others to Enact Action
Presuming firm leaders and guiding coalition members address steps 1 through 4,
success in step 5 is contingent on the change leader’s and guiding team’s skill in
eliminating obstacles that impede change and empowering broad action through
participation (Kotter et al., 2004). With large-scale change initiatives, some organizations
fail because leaders do not deal effectively with obstacles that block others from
embracing and acting on the vision (Kotter, 1996; Kotter et al., 2004). Employee
resistance and other organizational barriers can undermine leaders’ credibility and
jeopardize large-scale change attempts (Page & Schoder, 2019). Change leaders should
be aware of potential obstacles, such as disempowering bosses or middle managers, the
mind (i.e., individuals’ belief in their abilities), evaluation and rewards problems, and
lack of information (Kotter et al., 2004). In the following scenario, a middle manager was
adamant about maintaining the status quo and functioning as usual until his employer’s
drastic decision resulted in him seeing and feeling what the customer was experiencing.
45
In Retooling the Boss (Kotter et al., 2004), Wallace sent a 20-year employee
(Joe), who resisted change and customer feedback, to work for 6 months for a dissatisfied
customer. From this new vantage point, Joe learned first-hand that the high-quality
products he had delivered to the customer created problems. Joe was not only committed
to remedying the quality issues his group had made, but as the customer’s newest
advocate, he returned to his employer ready to quickly correct the problems and ceased to
be a barrier to change. Wallace had the authority, vision, and connections as a top
manager to act on an unconventional, creative solution to help Joe experience the
customer’s problem for himself and become a change agent. In addition to eliminating
obstacles and dealing with resistance, empowerment is about giving people new
authority, new responsibilities, motivation, and support (Kotter et al., 2004). According
to Pregmark (2022), empowerment should focus less on dissatisfaction (such as obstacles
and resistance) and more on creating desire, encouragement, and a trusting culture.
After surveying 276 middle managers, Thakur and Srivastava (2018) found that
trust, perceived organizational support, and emotional attachment mediates the
relationship between resistance and readiness and that readiness to change reduces the
negative impact of resistance. When moving from the unknown to the known, managers
who understand their employees’ psyches can offer them a human touch and positively
influence change management outcomes (Thakur & Srivastava, 2018). Thakur and
Srivastava highlighted several ways managers could learn more about their employees
and foster mutual trust and respect. Managers should keep their eyes and ears open,
46
provide organizational support using motivating language, empathize, and share authority
and control, which is encouraging and empowering.
Top management support is crucial for empowering others, particularly in the
case of system adoption (Al-Omoush et al., 2021; Badrinarayanan et al., 2019; Chen et
al., 2018; Deshmukh et al., 2020; Maçães & Román-Portas, 2022; Mayfield et al., 2021;
Meena & Shau, 2021; Pregmark, 2022; Thakur & Srivastava, 2018). While Kotter et al.
(2004) stress top managers’ role in painting a picture of a future state, Pregmark (2022)
believes managers should be skilled in letting the future emerge when the future is
unclear. Despite the volatile and uncertain contemporary competitive landscape,
managers must choose how to employ traditional change models to strategically manage
organizational changes, even when the vision and strategy are ambiguous (Pregmark,
2022).
According to Maçães and Román-Portas (2022), top managers should adopt an
empowering leadership style to engage employees in the change process and lessen
opposition. Maçães and Román-Portas further concluded that transformational and
transactional leaders had a direct positive relationship with organizational change in the
hospitality sector in Portugal. Additionally, employees that feel connected to the
organization are more willing to exert effort to achieve objectives (Maçães & Román-
Portas, 2022). Similarly, Mayfield et al. (2021) advocate for leaders to use motivating
language to increase followers’ organizational identification. According to Mayfield et
al., leader-motivating language includes when leaders use direction-giving language,
47
empathetic language, and meaning-making (e.g., stories about people who used to work
for the company).
When managers are ineffective in motivating and empowering others through
language or other means, Badrinarayanan et al. (2019) suggest that organizations analyze
managers’ managerial qualities rather than focusing on members’ motivation.
Badrinarayanan et al. found that managers’ managerial capabilities (i.e., social capital,
human capital, and cognition) coupled with their access to skilled resources enable
managers to detect opportunities and threats and mobilize resources. In their study, Al-
Omoush et al. (2021) found that organizational context, technological context, normative
pressures, and coercive pressures significantly impact social CRM (SCRM)
entrepreneurship. Examples of SCRM entrepreneurial activities include incorporating
social media into CRM to improve customer satisfaction, retention, and acquisition.
Converging SCRM and entrepreneurial activities to boost a firm’s customer focus is
challenging.
Sixth Step: Generate Short-Term Wins
Presuming firm leaders and the guiding coalition address steps 1 through 5,
success in step 6 depends on leaders and the guiding coalition’s ability to demonstrate
desired results quickly. There is no debate about whether people are more receptive to
meaningful accomplishments or empty platitudes (Kotter et al., 2004). Another cause of
failure is when organizations fail to create short-term wins that matter to decision makers,
supporters, and cynics (Kotter, 1996). Quick and momentous short-term wins are critical
success factors for change management projects. In the scenario that follows, a company
48
struggling to stay afloat managed to finish a handful of crucial tasks quickly rather than
stumbling over hundreds.
In The List on the Bulletin Boards (Kotter et al., 2004), Ross Kao wanted to avoid
simultaneously putting too many balls in the air. Kao wanted the team to focus so they
could experience some quick and easy yet significant wins and feel good about their
accomplishments. He collaborated with a small group to identify the top four issues
instead of compiling a comprehensive list of all the problems the company was facing
and allocating resources to each. He called the list ‘the Big Four’ and published it where
employees could see it often, talk about it, work on their tasks, and celebrate some
overnight accomplishments. Prioritizing projects or tasks that skilled and motivated
people can quickly complete could lead to short-term wins (Kotter et al., 2004).
Establishing small, attainable goals along the way may positively influence those who
still do not believe in the project or process.
Khatteeb (2021) examined qualitative data on Lewin’s, McKinsey’s, ADKAR’s,
Bridges’, and Kotter’s change models to compare applications of various change models
from secondary sources. Khatteeb determined that adaptive firms implementing ERP
would benefit from using Kotter’s model, which involves planned change. As cross-
functional technological transformations such as ERP are inevitable, Khatteeb believes
Kotter’s model has the best potential to reduce resistance, boost success rates, and
produce tangible improvements. Without change management, many system
implementations (i.e., ERP and CRM) will fail.
49
To identify change management success factors, Errida and Lotfi (2021)
examined 37 organizational change models starting with Lewin’s as the foundation of all
subsequent models. According to Errida and Lotfi’s study, the best change model
depends on the circumstances surrounding the change and, in some cases, warrants
combining several models to find the best fit. Both Mento et al.’s (2002) 12-phase
approach and Kanter’s change management wheel are processual models (Errida & Lotfi,
2021), like Kotter’s, that include quick wins for motivation. Regardless of the model
chosen, organizations that are excellent at change management plan for quick wins early
in the project and celebrate milestones.
Seventh Step: Sustain Acceleration
After some short-term wins in step 6, success in step 7 depends on leaders and the
guiding coalition’s skill in remaining focused, avoiding complacency and complex
politics, and sustaining momentum (Kotter et al., 2004). Once the organization has
experienced some quick, short-term wins, there is a risk that people might grow weary
and tired of change. Employees’ inability to stick with change is especially the case with
disempowering managers or cynical employees that initially believed the goals were
ambiguous (Nelson et al., 2020) and individuals who were never fully convinced that
change was necessary (Aydin & Akyollu, 2021). When employees identify with their
organization (Mayfield et al., 2021) and have a solid organizational commitment (Aujla
& Mclarney, 2020), they become culturally invested and motivated in the organization’s
success. When leaders fail to provide managers with the tools and training to help
50
motivate employees, employees might become de-motivated, dissatisfied, and disengaged
(L. Koziol & M. Koziol, 2020).
After a short-term win, even motivated employees may forget why a change was
necessary in the first place. Periodic and consistent reporting and incentives are essential
for sustaining change. If employees perceive activities as non-value-added, money alone
will not convince them to continue taking on additional responsibilities and risks. When
urgency drops, it may be necessary to go back to step 1 and revisit the problem. In the
following scenario, Nolan and Featherstone (Kotter et al., 2004) formed a diverse task
force of eight visible and credible employees. Nolan and Featherstone empowered their
task force to highlight issues in a way that resonated and stuck with executives.
In The Merchant of Fear (Kotter et al., 2004), Nolan and Featherstone knowingly
disregarded the company’s long history of poor investment planning due to work silos
and complicated politics. Nolan and Fetherstone created a powerful, cross-organizational,
dedicated task force called an ‘Action Lab’ to address the company’s poor investment
planning. With the Chief Executive Officer’s (CEO) support and limited boundaries or
governing rules, the task force’s goal was to be transparent, candid, bold, and creative in
addressing silos, work politics, and behaviors that negatively impact investment planning.
The CEO equipped the task force with sufficient leeway, time, access, and creative
freedom to surmount obstacles and diffuse some defensiveness. The task force was
responsible for identifying and highlighting the correct issues in a way that resonated
with the executives.
51
The task force spent 6 weeks collecting data, creating absurd videos imitating
people being unreasonable, and showing video snippets to executives. One video was The
Merchant of Fear, a skit depicting an outlandish and exaggerated person manufacturing
reason to increase the budget. The merchant of fear would always have an explanation for
why they required additional funding, as the merchant of fear never believed enough
funds were budgeted. The videotaped images resonated with the group of 20-30
executives that the task force mocked in the skits. The task force’s goal was to use short,
videotaped performances and role-playing to help reduce employees’, especially
executives’, unhealthy behaviors in the future.
In a multi-year system implementation project at a mid-sized university in the
United States, Wentworth et al. (2020) used Kotter’s change model as a template to
implement a new, robust system for evaluating faculty members’ curriculum and teaching
skills. All three authors, Wentworth et al., served as participant-observers in the
university-wide implementation project to replace the 20-year-old legacy system that no
longer met the institution’s needs. After the diverse task force selected a vendor’s
offering and became experts on the new system, each member assumed responsibility for
assisting others in comprehending the vision and assuaging their fears (Wentworth et al.,
2020). The task force conducted four semester-long pilots of the new system over 2 years
and disseminated reports to all users detailing their findings (Wentworth et al., 2020).
After pilot testing, 81% of the faculty voted to move forward with implementation along
with all three deans.
52
In a different higher education study, Kang et al. (2022) also used Kotter’s model
as a template yet to address inequitable retention and inadequate career preparation of
diverse students at a university in the southwestern United States. Like Wentworth et al.’s
study, Kang et al.’s study was also a multi-year effort with an interdisciplinary team of
engineering faculty and administrators. While both Wentworth et al. and Kang et al. used
Kotter’s model, Kang et al. only linearly applied the model during the planning phase and
adapted the model during the implementation phase. Following an iterative procedure
allowed Kang et al. to modify the model to account for any changes during and following
the pilot to avoid complacency and sustain momentum. In this study, Kang et al. were
among the first to apply a non-linear version of Kotter’s model, managing the steps as
agile and revisable rather than deterministic.
Eighth Step: Incorporate Changes Into the Culture
Success in step 8 depends on leaders and the guiding coalition’s ability to keep a
robust organizational culture with behavioral continuity and remind everyone why the
change was and is still needed (Kotter et al., 2004). Culture and habits do not
fundamentally change until change agents fully implement the change and changes have
roots (Kotter et al., 2004). Change is the organization and the people, their behaviors, and
their involvement in the change process. According to Aujla and Mclarney (2020),
managers should involve users early to build strong relationships and ensure employees
feel a sense of belonging. Page and Schoder (2019) also believe managers are vital to
sustaining change by engaging employees across the organization and communicating
openly and honestly. Organizations may see long-lasting, sustainable results when leaders
53
or managers can empower and inspire employees to participate in change actively and
institute change policies and procedures.
Once the organization completes the change and there is behavioral continuity,
Kotter and Cohen believe change should be sustainable. Cultural transformation should
follow successful change implementation (Kotter et al., 2004). Even after CRM
implementation, as the organizational culture improves, so does CRM performance
(Abdavi et al., 2018). As organizations address resistance and solve problems throughout
the change process, they form shared assumptions, values, and norms that affect their
organizational commitment (Abdavi et al., 2018; Azhakarraja, 2020). Some of those
assumptions include the following: lack of trust impedes organizations from achieving
the full potential of CRM (Chen et al., 2021; Jager, 2021; Thakur & Srivastava, 2018),
and employees should use CRM intensively (Chen et al., 2021; Guerola-Navarro et al.,
2021a). If employees claim to value CRM but do not use or misuse it, the organization
reverts to step 1 of the change management process.
Conclusion of the Literature Review
Employee resistance and adoption are opposed yet co-exist in technology change
management initiatives. Ubiquitous change management theories and models focus on
people, groups, and organizations. This paper focused on organizational change as firm
leaders attempt to steer the entire company to align with their corporate strategies. While
there is little application of Kotter’s change model in CRM studies, it is the appropriate
lens to investigate firm leaders’ CRM strategies. In successful CRM implementations,
leaders communicate the CRM vision and strategy, create a CRM business culture,
54
empower employees, and ensure employees recognize CRM’s value as a philosophy and
business strategy. With this approach, leaders and managers organically mitigate end-user
resistance.
Transition
Despite firms' investment in system-related business tools and firm-wide change
initiatives (i.e., CRM, ERP, supply chain management, product data management, and
business intelligence and analytics), there is a high failure rate. In a CRM business
culture, leaders and managers are instrumental in empowering employees to recognize
CRM’s value (Chaithanapat et al., 2022). One of the worst mistakes leaders make when
approaching a critical change project is careening forward without building a high sense
of urgency among employees and managers (Kotter, 1996; Kotter et al., 2004).
Employees inherently fight change, so leaders should handle employees with care to
support them while employees contemplate the need for change and the organization’s
ability to adapt successfully. Suoniemi et al. (2022) emphasized that leaders should spare
no effort to garner stakeholder commitment and empower organizational personnel
before implementing CRM.
In Section 1, I discussed the purpose of the study, its nature, the research question,
the interview questions, and the conceptual framework. Section 1 also consisted of a
literature search strategy, statistics, and synthesis of extant literature supporting the
research question. In Section 2, I restated the research objective, provided a
comprehensive overview of the research method and design, and summarized the
population and sampling. I also discussed the researcher's and participants' roles. I then
55
researched data collection, tools, methodologies, and analysis. I give the results of my
qualitative multiple case study design in Section 3. The results contain significant themes,
fascinating insights, and an explanation of how my study might be used in business
practice to affect social change, all through the lens of change management.
56
Section 2: The Project
The researcher's role follows the purpose statement from Section 1 in Section 2.
In qualitative research and case studies, researcher bias is a significant obstacle;
therefore, researchers must thoroughly understand their role and potential obstacles.
Some obstacles may be ethical, such as a researcher needing to determine how to
safeguard a company's confidential and proprietary data. Section 2 includes an overview
of the researcher's role and research ethics. In addition, Section 2 provides an overview of
research participants, their qualifications, the selection of participants who were relevant
to the research question, and gaining access to participants. The research method and
design are revisited from Section 1. Section 2 concludes with a description of the
qualitative data analysis process and my role in ensuring the reliability and validity of the
study.
Purpose Statement
The purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore strategies that
firm leaders use to manage change and organizational resources when implementing
CRM. The targeted population consisted of a minimum of five B2B firm leaders working
for SMEs within Texas who have used strategies to manage change and organizational
resources when implementing CRM. The data consisted of participants’ responses to
semistructured interview questions and pertinent organizational documentation. The
findings from this study may positively affect social change in SMEs because improved
CRM system use may lead to new business prospects and affect sales orders and, thus,
firm revenue. As a result, firms might have extra money to increase involvement in local
57
CSR programs like offering employees a quarterly paid week of service, funding paid
internships for local high school and college students and collaborating with local
community organizations to provide low-income residents or single parents with free
online career training.
Role of the Researcher
The researcher's role in qualitative data collection was to identify reliable and
valid data sources through interviews, observations, or relevant and credible peer-
reviewed sources. In qualitative studies, researchers are the data collection instrument
responsible for reducing researcher and participant bias (Saunders et al., 2016). As the
researcher, I minimized bias by not volunteering my perspective and not influencing
participants' responses or rushing them. Researchers should demonstrate knowledge of
the research topic, competence, credibility, and professionalism by being prepared and
encouraging participants to share authentic information (Saunders et al., 2016). During an
interview, the researcher must listen carefully, take detailed notes, summarize, and restate
what participants shared, and observe nonverbal cues that may warrant unscripted
clarification (Saunders et al., 2016). Using an interview protocol helps mitigate bias and
the researcher’s natural inclination to view and interpret data via a personal lens
(Saunders et al., 2016). Interviews are also the ideal method for doing in-depth case
studies of individuals’ past occurrences (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016).
In this study, I served as the data collection instrument and interviewer who used
open-ended interviewing to gain an in-depth understanding of firm leaders' activities and
decisions relative to a contemporary business problem (Saunders et al., 2016). As a
58
corporate executive, I work closely with firm leaders, sales and marketing executives,
and salespeople, and I use CRM. It was essential that I did not overlook my biases and
that I examine and bracket my various levels of consciousness and set my preconceptions
in abeyance. Janak (2022) recommended that researchers focus their self-analysis and
self-interview on the following areas: their background, perception of the subject,
interpretations, impact, ethical and political issues, and the unexpected. Monitoring how
firm leaders manage change and organizational resources when implementing CRM has
exposed me to the complexities of large-scale change initiatives. I solicited study
participants on LinkedIn by searching for sales and marketing executives working for
SMEs in Texas who had successfully used CRM for 3 or more years. I corresponded with
participants through LinkedIn, email, telephone, and web conferencing.
As the researcher, I complied with The Belmont Report protocol (see White,
2020) for ethical research. The Belmont Report includes three basic ethical principles that
underlie research involving human subjects: respect for persons, beneficence, and justice
(as cited in Pritchard, 2021). I complied with these regulations and policies by obtaining
informed consent before the interview, ensuring that participants understood the topic and
research objectives, and confirming their willingness to participate. I also mitigated
potential harm to participants by assessing the shared information's risks and benefits and
subsequent usage. To further improve reliability, I invited participants to review
interview transcripts and enlisted support to interpret the findings.
59
Participants
The research participants included five B2B firm leaders of SMEs in Texas. The
eligibility criteria to participate in this study included leaders who successfully managed
change and organizational resources when implementing CRM. The firms must have
implemented CRM, have used it for at least 3 years, and have proof of
postimplementation success. Once the Institutional Review Board (IRB) authorized me to
move forward, I used LinkedIn and the ZoomInfo B2B database, which contained
company profiles for over 95 million companies, to find potential candidate participants.
As the researcher, I considered each individual's role, experience, knowledge, and CRM
observations. I surveyed sales and marketing leaders to identify the firms that have
successfully implemented CRM systems. I invited a subset of professionals
(approximately five) from different firms to participate in my study. In the case of
roadblocks, I identified potential gatekeepers who were influential in helping me gain
access to the targeted survey participant (see Saunders et al., 2016).
To obtain valuable and insightful feedback, I treated research subjects equally,
albeit with deference. To establish a positive working relationship with participants, I
communicated in an open, considerate, clear, and thoughtful manner. I adhered to their
guidelines regarding communication cadence, timing, and methods, whether spoken or
unspoken. I also ensured respect for all participants, their interests, and their careers. I
ensured that participants understood the research question and objective and their role
and consent to participate (see Pritchard, 2021). I refrained from passing judgment on
their practices or providing advice or feedback.
60
Research Method and Design
Using a qualitative multiple case study, I investigated firm leaders' strategies for
managing change and organizational resources when implementing CRM. According to
Meena and Sahu (2021), most CRM research from 2000 to 2020 was empirical or
conceptual and focused on CRM strategy and management. Investigating my research
question required an interpretive or qualitative research design. Due to the complexity of
CRM implementations and the role of change management and organizational resources,
a case study approach facilitated an in-depth, multidimensional examination of how
successful SMEs in Texas implement CRM.
Research Method
Qualitative research was appropriate for understanding firm leaders’ experiences,
their interpretation of those experiences, and the significance they ascribe to those
experiences (see Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). My personality, background, interests, and
skills complement qualitative research, in which words rather than numbers serve as data.
In qualitative research, findings derived from participants’ words become vital themes,
typologies, and concepts that describe what the researcher has uncovered about a
phenomenon (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). Existing theories do not account for the CRM
phenomenon. My research did not involve surveying participants, quantifying anything,
testing hypotheses, or generating predictions. The quantitative research method was not
appropriate for this research because it did not lend itself to an in-depth exploratory study
of the research question (see Lanka et al., 2021). Neither the quantitative nor mixed-
61
method research (which includes quantitative research) methods were appropriate for this
study.
Research Design
I explored ethnography, phenomenology design, and qualitative case studies for
the research design. Ethnography concerns the study of people, human society, culture,
and the interaction of the two (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). I was not planning to spend
time with a group to study their cultural experience, so ethnography was inappropriate.
Phenomenology concerns the shared nature of a lived experience among a particular
group concerning a specific concept (Englander, 2019). As I did not intend to share the
lived experiences of a group, a phenomenological design was inappropriate.
A case study is a detailed description and examination of a specific entity or
single unit, at the exclusion of all others, that serves as an example of a contemporary
phenomenon (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). For this study, the unit of analysis was firm
executives working for SMEs in Texas who managed change and organizational
resources when implementing CRM. I targeted high-ranking executives of SMEs in
Texas with experience with one particular technology. There was a limit to the number of
people I could interview, which bounded the phenomenon and qualified this study as a
case study. I used an exploratory multiple-case study design to replicate and compare
findings across diverse organizations or analytical units. I interviewed a minimum of five,
which was the minimum number of people I planned to interview until I reached data
saturation. According to Merriam and Tisdell (2016), data saturation occurs when
researchers hear similar responses, observe similar behaviors, and gain no new insights.
62
Population and Sampling
The total number of cases from which a sample is drawn is known as the
population (Saunders et al., 2016). The targeted population consisted of B2B firm leaders
working for SMEs within Texas who used CRM for at least 3 years. Specifically, the firm
leaders were qualified to serve as key informants and were able to share their experiences
as organizational leaders. Firm leaders might be sales or marketing executives and called
a chief sales officer, chief marketing officer, chief technology officer, senior vice
president, vice president of sales or marketing, or something equivalent relative to
authority and responsibilities. As planned, I conducted online synchronous video
interviews where the participant and I could see and hear one another. With online
interviews, researchers can record interviews regardless of the location of potential
participants (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016).
Due to restrictions such as time, money, and access, not every firm leader in the
population should participate in the study (Saunders et al., 2016). Because collecting data
from the entire population is impractical, researchers select a sample or subset of
participants from the targeted population. I used purposive sampling to determine the
correct sample size and whom to choose based on how well participants met the inclusion
criteria, which includes the ability to answer the research question (see Moser &
Korstjens, 2018). Due to the study's narrow and specific focus, five unique participants
were sufficient to obtain meaningful themes, meet data saturation, and make valuable
interpretations. I reached data saturation with five participants. The objective was to
select knowledgeable, responsive, and amenable participants to share their experiences
63
(see Sebele-Mpofu, 2020). Low (2019) suggested that researchers determine sampling
adequacy by saturation and replication. Once I heard similar ideas and themes and no
new information or themes, data saturation occurred.
Ethical Research
Before accessing participants or participant data, I sought and received the IRB’s
approval from Walden University (Approval No. 12-21-22-1030171). Using the
Informed Consent form, I obtained participants’ consent to participate in the study and
share their information. I demonstrated respect for them as individuals and professionals
(VandeVusse et al., 2022). I informed participants that they would not receive incentives
or gifts for their participation. I provided participants with timely information to ask
questions to determine if they were willing to participate in the study. I allowed them to
review, absorb, and process information and avoided pushing them to make swift
decisions. I also avoided making them feel obligated to participate or respond in a matter
that did not reflect their actual observations, experience, or feelings.
I have kept participants’ confidential and proprietary information and personal
thoughts and experience safe and protected their identity. I avoided disclosing any
information that might risk their firms' intellectual properties or ability to compete in
their respective markets. Such information might include individuals’ names or any other
identifying information. No participants informed me that they no longer wanted to
participate in the study.
64
Data Collection Instruments
As the researcher, I served as the primary data collection instrument. In
qualitative studies, researchers are the data collection instrument because they interview
participants, interpret their responses (Saunders et al., 2016), and determine if the
information is adequate (Sebele-Mpofu, 2020). I conducted five semistructured
interviews (see the Appendix for the interview protocol and Appendix B for the interview
questions) to ensure data saturation for my research design. Data saturation occurs when
researchers hear similar responses, observe similar behaviors, and gain no new insights
(Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). Interview protocols (see Appendix A) address the business
problem, research question, and purpose.
I used clarifying follow-up questions to improve the reliability and validity of the
interview data. I invited interviewees to participate in member checking of interview
transcripts to verify that I correctly interpreted their responses and that they were
comfortable with what they disclosed. In qualitative studies, researchers also review
secondary data. Secondary data may include contributions from others within an
organization (Saunders et al., 2016), company documentation (i.e., communications,
webinars, project documents, and reports), and archival records (i.e., survey data and
budget information) to aid in capturing participants’ experience (Alam, 2021).
Data Collection Technique
Having few individuals involved makes data collection more manageable and
saves time (Saunders et al., 2016). Additionally, collecting data from fewer cases allows
the researcher to collect, check, and analyze more detailed information and maximize
65
existing data (Saunders et al., 2016). According to Lanka et al. (2021), the sample size
does not affect the complexity and quantity of data. I obtained each human subject’s
written consent to use a videoconferencing tool to record the interview to maintain a
chain of evidence (Yin, 2018). Using the consent form, I asked participants to assist me
in reviewing and capturing insights I may have missed during their initial interview. To
collect primary data, I conducted and recorded five online one-on-one semistructured
interviews.
I recorded interviewees' intonations, long pauses, and stuttering, as well as my
real-time reflections and thoughts. For the transcribed interview, I invited participants to
engage in member checking for data interpretation and interview transcript review,
which, according to VandeVusse et al. (2022), is one of the most common forms of
shared qualitative data. Some advantages of interviews are the ability to record, observe,
and preserve everything said and the software for verbatim transcription and analysis
(Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). Even though interviews are the primary data source in
qualitative research, the respondent’s health and disposition at the time of the interview
may affect the data quality (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). To collect secondary data, I
requested that participants share any material relevant to the study, such as CRM-related
implementation documentation, processes, reports, performance goals, user feedback,
metrics, project plans, schedules, or vendor proposals that could help answer the research
question.
Madden and Tarabochia (2021) asserted that secondary data research is beneficial
and can produce high-quality outcomes when conducted correctly. One challenge with
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using printed or online documents and artifacts as secondary source material in
qualitative research is determining the documents’ authenticity (Merriam & Tisdell,
2016). Secondary source materials may include an outdated account of a phenomenon
from an individual who indirectly experienced or observed the phenomenon (Merriam &
Tisdell, 2016). The observer’s personal biases and data collection method were a
potential source of controversy relative to data validity. The interview protocols are in
Appendix A.
Data Analysis
As the researcher, I collected, organized, and analyzed data to comprehend why
significant recurring themes, ideas, and alternative viewpoints occur. I used NVivo
software to condense, organize, and categorize data for quality analysis (Saunders et al.,
2016). I used Microsoft TEAMs to transcribe interview recordings and NVivo to code
data to help identify the speakers, what they said, their sentiments, main points,
surprising perspectives, and commonalities. With NVivo, as the researcher, I was also
able to run a word frequency query to determine which words participants used most
frequently. The resultant visual word cloud or graphs revealed emerging themes and
insightful patterns.
In contrast to quantitative research, where researchers derive meaning from
numbers, qualitative research reveals multiple realities through individual perspectives of
a phenomenon based on words and images (Saunders et al., 2016). For my research
study, I used Kotter's change management model to formulate my research question.
Using Kotter's theoretical model, I employed a deductive approach to data analysis to
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link my research to the existing knowledge on change management. To ensure quality
data analysis, I performed data analysis during and after data collection through a
concurrent and recursive process of correcting and cleaning data. Additionally, I analyzed
data following each interview to prevent losing ideas or forgetting interpretations.
Saunders et al. refer to this form of analysis as an interim summary, a working document
consisting of an overview of key points and observations identified following each
interview.
In a multiple case study, the researcher attempts to construct a general explanation
that fits each case, despite the differences from one case to another. This method caused
me to zero in on specific subsets of the resulting data set as I searched for themes relevant
to my research question. Saunders et al. outlined the procedure for conducting thematic
analysis: the researcher becomes familiar with the data, codes the data, manipulates the
data, searches for key themes of interest, refines themes, interprets the data, and evaluates
propositions. The research objective, research question, and case study design led to a
literature review and conceptual framework that helped validate my research question
and data collection plan.
The study of strategies to motivate employees to use CRM systems suggested that
some firm leaders lacked strategies to reduce employees' resistance to using CRM
systems. For each firm, the purpose of the case study was for leaders to describe their
approach to reducing employees' resistance to using CRM systems. A general analytical
strategy, such as linking case study data to key concepts or points of interest, is the best
way to prepare for case study analysis (Yin, 2018). Using theoretical propositions as the
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analytical strategy, the resulting concepts offer researchers guidance for conducting data
analysis (Yin, 2018). In a multiple case study, Yin noted that the researcher attempts to
construct a general explanation that fits each case, despite their nuances.
Data Organization Technique
As the researcher, I used NVivo qualitative data analysis software to
automatically transcribe and organize diverse data and produce verbatim custom
transcripts and reports for analysis. Using NVivo instead of traditional mind mapping
software alone lessened the number of manual tasks and afforded me, the researcher,
more time to identify patterns, categories, and themes and draw conclusions. As the
researcher, I used interview themes that I derived from the literature, theories I
considered, my experience, observations, and discussions with research participants for
data triangulation. Methodological triangulation uses different data collection techniques
and sources to corroborate data acquired at various points in time (Merriam & Tisdell,
2016). Methodological triangulation is essential for case study research (Saunders et al.,
2016). Access to a firm's documentation and artifacts further allows for data triangulation
(Saunders et al., 2016).
I uploaded data to NVivo, including interview recordings or transcripts, my notes
and observations, and firms' documentation (i.e., surveys and memos). The data loaded
into NVivo is encrypted and stored for 5 years. I also used Mindjet MindManager
brainstorming software, Microsoft OneNote, and Microsoft Excel to keep track of
ancillary thoughts, ideas, and findings. NVivo aggregated and synthesized data to obscure
sensitive information.
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Reliability and Validity
Adopting a qualitative methodology supported by multiple case studies assisted
firm leaders in learning how each participating firm leader managed change and
organizational resources when implementing CRM, thereby allowing other firm leaders
to replicate dependable strategies and procedures to achieve comparable results.
According to Yin, a researcher must meet the following conditions in a case study: (a)
construct validation so that the researcher can accurately evaluate the studied concepts;
(b) reliability related to the possibility of replicating the study a second time; (c) internal
validity, to ensure that the inferences drawn from the data are adequate; and, (d) external
validity, which derives from the ability of the results to represent the studied
phenomenon. Construct validity is the degree to which a case study's measures accurately
reflect the investigated concepts (Yin, 2018). My doctoral committee of experts reviewed
my research objective, research question, and interview questions to ensure construct
validity.
Reliability
Reliability is essential for case study findings' credibility, dependability, and
transferability (Quintão et al., 2020). Researchers have long criticized the case study
approach due to its low reliability and validity (Quintão et al., 2020). For qualitative
research to be reliable, researchers must demonstrate the study’s authenticity and
trustworthiness and ensure that their application of methods and interpretations resonate
with the reader and can be replicated (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). With qualitative
research, due to the researcher's subjectivity, data collection and interpretation may be
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susceptible to bias. The researcher's role as interviewer and presence during
semistructured interviews may impact participants' responses. As the researcher, I
worked to ensure readers understand the objective and rationale for the study and
recognized the study’s value.
Researchers use case study approaches to comprehend a phenomenon by
synthesizing multiple perspectives. In a case study, the researcher must ensure various
sources of evidence, data triangulation, and review of interview transcripts. I considered
data from various case studies and multiple participants to ensure transferability
concerning the reader and future research and for data triangulation, which according to
Quintão et al., is a more robust approach than a single case study. Involving multiple data
sources (i.e., research participants) will aid in establishing reliability and ensure the rigor
and robustness of the case study approach. The researcher can ensure the study's
credibility by conducting member checking, data triangulation, validating interview
questions, reviewing interview transcripts, capturing researcher thoughts, and adhering to
the pre-established interview protocol (Yin, 2018).
Validity
To ensure external validity, I selected a minimum of five cases. Each firm and
research participant provided strategies for managing change and organizing resources
when implementing CRM. To improve the quality of the multiple case studies and ensure
construct validity, I invited the study participants to review the interview transcripts.
Participants' clarifications or corrections addressed confirmability and enhanced the
accuracy of the case studies. Confirmability in qualitative research is coming as close to
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objective reality as possible (Stahl & King, 2020). To further improve confirmability, I
strived to be precise, accurate, and systematic while avoiding data and research
environment contamination.
Due to the study's narrow and specific focus, five participants were sufficient to
obtain meaningful themes, meet data saturation, and make valuable interpretations. Low
(2019) suggests that researchers determine sampling adequacy by saturation and
replication. Once I heard similar ideas and themes and no new information or themes,
data saturation occurred (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). One of the goals of qualitative
research is to broaden understanding by transferring findings from one environment and
situation to another (Stahl & King, 2020). Research is transferable when a detailed
description evokes a vivid enough image to allow others to apply the findings to different
circumstances (Stahl & King, 2020). As the researcher, I provided thick contextual
descriptions when presenting my findings and recommendations regarding future
research.
Transition and Summary
In Section 2, I reiterated the purpose of the study, the research method and design,
and the population and sampling. Section 2 also includes an overview of the informed
consent for data collection and sharing. The remainder of Section 2 provides an overview
of the data collection instruments, data collection techniques, and data organization
techniques I employed and adhered to moving forward. The second section concludes
with a procedural description of the data analysis process for the case study design and
how I, as the researcher, ensured the reliability and validity of the qualitative data.
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In Section 3, I presented the findings of my qualitative multiple case study design.
The findings include important themes, intriguing observations, and a synthesis of the
peer-reviewed studies from the literature review and literature published since I wrote my
proposal. I also connected my findings to my conceptual framework and demonstrated
how my findings support or contradict existing literature. Ultimately, I demonstrated how
my research and findings can be applied to business practice and affect social change.
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Section 3: Application to Professional Practice and Implications for Change
Introduction
The purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore strategies that
firm leaders used to manage change and organizational resources when implementing
CRM. I conducted five semistructured online interviews using six open-ended questions
with firm leaders who have used strategies to manage change and organizational
resources when implementing CRM. In a semistructured interview, the interviewer may
pose a mix of open-ended questions based on the respondent's emergent global
viewpoints (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). For this study, I assigned each participant a
confidential identifier in the following order: P1, P2, P3, P4, and P5. I used Microsoft®
Teams to record and transcribe the interviews, and I used MindManager to capture key
themes and identify additional queries or thoughts that emerged from participants'
worldviews. I used MindManager® brainstorming software, NVivo 12 Pro, and
Microsoft® Excel to categorize and analyze interview data.
For qualitative data analysis, I imported five case study interview transcripts into
NVivo and began the discovery phase exploring the data and creating codes based on the
qualitative data. Although a few themes stood out when interviewing, when I began
manually coding, I started from scratch, creating codes, and reviewing each response line
by line. I adopted this inductive strategy to avoid bias and determine what could arise
from case studies. According to Merriam and Tisdell, as a researcher approaches the
conclusion of their study, they operate primarily deductively seeking evidence to support
their final set of coding categories.
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Presentation of the Findings
The study’s overarching research question was as follows: What strategies do
firm leaders use to manage change and organizational resources when implementing
CRM? I collected data via semistructured interviews, observations, and interview notes.
To check internal validity and thus ensure rigor and robustness, I invited members to
participate in member checking, which included reviewing their interview transcripts and
my notes and enabling them to edit their responses and provide additional data. In
between interviews, I listened to snippets of the recordings, read through the transcripts,
and captured reoccurring themes or surprising insights in the mind-mapping software.
Before data collection, I expected a few codes to emerge based on my research.
Nonetheless, I sought experts from a purposeful sample, so I wanted to see what codes
might arise from their responses. Consequently, I chose an inductive coding strategy and
vacillated between an inductive and a deductive approach.
Once I completed the final interview, I uploaded the interview transcripts into
NVivo and began open-coding the interviews line-by-line creating codes based on the
qualitative data. Coding is an iterative process of comparing data, identifying similarities
and differences, and classifying data (Saunders et al., 2016). I identified similar data
patterns and created subthemes under the principal codes. I identified several codes from
the initial coding of interviews. For further thematic analysis, I used NVivo and
Microsoft Excel to identify the emerging themes and subthemes and the frequency of
codes in different interview transcripts. In addition, I performed a word frequency query
summary and visualized it as a word cloud in Figure 2.
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Figure 2
Interview Transcript Word Frequency Cloud
Note. When I examined the word cloud display of up to 100 words of varying sizes
(Figure 2), several words were prominent: CRM, change, control, customer,
implementation, effective, information, leadership, like, management, organization,
partner, people, problem, process, quality, resources, right, sales, strategy, system,
team, time, tool, use, and resistance.
Table 5 shows the number of codes identified in each interview and the number
of new distinct codes that emerged in each subsequent interview. From Interviews 2 to 3,
no new codes emerged (see Table 5). However, between Interviews 3 and 4, two new
codes emerged. No new codes emerged from Interviews 4 to 5, indicating that I had
attained data saturation. Per Merriam and Tisdell (2016), after reading each transcript, I
revisited my marginal notes, comments, highlights, and coding to categorize and group
comments to construct themes. I constructed four themes identified in Table 6 and
displayed in Figure 3.
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Table 5
Number of New Codes by Participant
Interview
Participant
Number of codes
Number of new codes
1
P1
12
12
2
P2
12
3
3
P3
13
0
4
P4
11
2
5
P5
13
0
Table 6
Emerging Themes and Coding References
Theme no.
Main theme
References
1
Secure executive sponsorship and management buy-in
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2
Secure critical resources
15
3
Adopt a change management framework
61
4
Measure adoption, system utilization, and performance
57
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Figure 3
Four Major Themes: Varied Degrees of Frequency-Based Significance
Theme 1: Secure Executive Sponsorship and Management Buy-In
Secure executive sponsorship and management buy-in was the first theme I
derived from the data with (a) leadership/top management, (b) buy-in, and (c) executive
visibility and decision making subthemes. Securing executive sponsorship and
management buy-in is analogous to Step 4 of Kotter’s change management model, which
conveys the vision and strategy to managers, employees, and stakeholders to obtain buy-
in. This theme was the most prevalent and significant of the four in this study, as each
participant spoke fervently about the importance of executive sponsorship, leadership
engagement, and management participation. Table 7 shows the results for Theme 1, with
a total of 67 references with leadership/top management, buy-in, and executive visibility,
and decision making as subthemes (depicted in Figure 4).
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Table 7
Emergent Theme 1: Secure Executive Sponsorship and Management Buy-In
Subthemes
Number of sources
References
Leadership/top management
5
36
Buy-in
5
31
Executive visibility and decision making
2
2
Figure 4
Executive, Leadership, and Management Subthemes
Executive Visibility and Decision Making
Figure 4 depicts executive visibility and decision making, even though I observed
insufficient data during interviews to qualify it as a significant subtheme. However,
according to P4 and P5, obtaining executive approval for funding was easy because their
organizations were culturally invested in CRM. Cultural investment, in both scenarios (in
the case of P4 and P5), speaks to executive visibility, decision making, and employees
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pushing for CRM instead of resisting it. P4 shared that their firm had invested in CRM
twice. The second time, the firm secured a dedicated internal executive sponsor, engaged
the right people, and hired a CRM implementation partner, which resulted in a more
seamless implementation. According to P5, the sales president said, “We’re going to do
this, no matter the cost,” as he could see the benefit of seeing what was happening within
the sales organizations.
According to P5, their sales team yearned for CRM, so many were using some
CRM tool they acquired independently. Sales did not wait for the corporation to
implement CRM or for corporate mandates, resources, guidelines, process changes, or
training. As the firm’s IT executive, P5 did not have to do any selling or lobbying on
anyone’s behalf to manage change or organizational resources. Because CRM is not an
IT initiative, according to P5, the sales organization should lead the charge rather than IT.
In this case, the sales president was the champion and a major stakeholder. According to
P5, “Having the business department champion, the president of the sales organization
leading, was the best way to get it approved, and it did not take long because everyone
knew that we were behind the times.”
P4 shared how their firm obtained the executive team’s buy-in on the business
needs and use cases with metrics. According to P4, their firm measured how
implementing CRM would result in greater adoption and utilization by the customers,
suggesting that there would be an return on investment. They also identified potential
efficiencies from implementing CRM. In P4’s firm, their team further created a road map
identifying growth projections for the next several years and how the headcount needed
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for CRM today would lead to reduced hiring later. While many organizations struggle
with low, zero, or even negative returns on investment in complex information systems
(Chen et al., 2021), P4 presented a clear and compelling business case to justify
increasing headcount and hiring an integration partner, which received executive
visibility and approval.
Leadership/Top Management
P1, P2, and P5 spoke of active leadership participation in CRM and showing
executives’ reliance on users for vital information in crucial decision making. P1
acknowledged that the executive and functional leadership teams rely on that individual
or team to provide important information on what they need to deliver to the customer.
The information P1 referenced is “elevated all the way to the top ranks of the company
where the decisions are made” about budget, resources, and the company’s direction—it
is the “foundation for our business.” P1 further stated that “when they input information,
it impacts the forecast of the opportunity” and “we have to deliver.” As the senior vice
president of sales, P1 actively communicated and shared throughout the organization how
c-suite individuals use CRM to support executive decision making.
As an executive vice president of sales with six sales vice presidents reporting to
them, P2 said, “When it comes to our organization that is focused on making it happen”
(i.e., sales communicating and educating customers to close business), “you can never
communicate enough.” In the preceding statement, P2 made a clear reference to
executive leadership’s responsibility in managing change and organizational resources
when implementing CRM. When I asked P2 to share their most effective strategies, P2
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said, “The most effective strategy was me paying attention to it as the leader of the
organization.” P2 further expressed that strong executive sponsorship was a powerful
driver for change.
Buy-In
P3 credited conducting preemptive research on the organization’s needs, reducing
negativity, and garnering support for CRM. P3 talked about the role of psychology and
how humans naturally resist change. Leadership listened to what people were griping
about and their problems, trying to figure out how to address them. In addition to senior
leaders listening and actively engaging in CRM, P3 observed success from “garnering the
support from department heads and some of their key personnel.” For department heads,
P2, P4, and P5 credited a business case for demonstrating the cost-benefit analysis that
drove their buy-in, peers, and management-level subordinates.
Once engaged, they (P2, P4, and P5) paid attention to CRM as organizational
leaders and executive sponsors aligned with management. They supported management
in defining realistic goals and communicating those goals and objectives throughout the
organization. While all participants covered the importance of buy-in, P4 said the initial
buy-in across the executive team and extreme buy-in from resources are essential.
However, it is also vital to ensure that “we continue to maintain support of the team once
implementing the system.” Another critical strategic activity that P4 shared was that their
organization created a business case and use cases and assembled executives and
managers to pitch their plan to gain buy-in. P4 and P5 also emphasized the importance of
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executives investing the appropriate time, allocating proper resources upfront, raising the
volume, and increasing communications early.
According to P1, “If they believe in it, they will use it.” P1 “empowered people
through active communication” (i.e., P1 drove buy-in by advocating for CRM to be the
sales team’s communication vehicle). Like P3, P1 touched on psychology,
neuropsychology, organizational behavior, and how employees can misconstrue urgency
as a commanding leadership style. P1 believed that observing people’s behaviors to
understand what motivates them instead of commanding them helped drive sustainable
behaviors in a changed CRM environment. P1 and P3 implemented a subconscious
reward system to manage change and motivate salespeople to use CRM. Nearly all
participants spoke of motivating people and rallying department champions to assist with
those efforts.
Theme 2: Secure Critical Resources
Secure critical resources was the second major theme that I derived from the data
with (a) critical internal CRM resources, (b) critical external CRM resources, and (c)
people subthemes. This theme is analogous to Step 2 of Kotter’s change management
model, which is build/form the guiding team/coalition. In investigating the effect of
including project managers on CRM, Deshmukh et al. (2020) discovered that project
managers play a crucial role in managing personnel issues, which can lead to project
failure. Like Deshmukh et al., P4 and P5 recognized not only the importance of project
managers but also the importance of gathering crucial internal resources (i.e., internal
dedicated CRM project managers, IT managers, department leads) and contracting an
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external integration partner to ensure CRM's success. The internal project manager was
responsible for updating executive leadership, keeping the project on schedule, and
ensuring that teams contributed to the success of the project. P4’s firm leveraged an
integration partner whose employees were former employees of the CRM company.
Table 8 shows the number of sources and references for the second major theme while
Figure 5 is a graphical representation of the subthemes.
Table 8
Emergent Theme 2: Secure Critical Resources
Subthemes
Number of sources
References
Critical internal CRM resources
4
9
Critical external CRM resources
2
4
People
2
2
Figure 5
Critical CRM
Resources Subthemes
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When asked what strategies were the most effective in managing change and
organizational resources when implementing CRM, participant P4 said their firm
leveraged an integration partner with a proven track record and had an internal project
manager who could drive collaboration. When asked the same question, P5 also shared
that their firm hired an external CRM implementation partner and identified internal
department champions, both were critical in managing the change and the resources. P1
said the most effective strategies is “Putting people first; making sure that people are in
charge of their destiny, their future, their careers.” In P1’s corporate environment, it was
crucial to comprehend the importance of CRM to individuals. CRM is essential for sales
performance, and people view success in sales differently.
Success, according to P1, may entail commissions, growth as a subject matter
expert, or advancement in the corporate hierarchy. Regardless of how people define
success, when managing change and organizational resources when implementing CRM
organizational leaders must integrate people, processes, and technology. When handled
effectively, people believe what they see and feel, realize change is required, and are
ready for the change process (Kotter et al., 2004). P4 had successfully identified top
performers who volunteered to participate in CRM and exceeded expectations. And P1
and P3's firms focused on salespeople's problems—they used CRM to help salespeople
be more efficient to achieve what they deemed to be success.
Last, compared to the other major themes, this theme was less prevalent in the
frequency of occurrence yet significant, insightful, and relevant. The first three interview
participants were sales executives whose responses focused primarily on their actions to
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meet their sales goals and objectives. The last two interview participants were IT
executives focused on business process transformations and creating a strategic plan for
CRM and a road map. The IT executives defined new business processes, evaluated
integration points into CRM, created project plans, and mapped out cultural changes. All
these elements warranted an investment in a CRM integration partner, not simply in
CRM licenses or up-front training.
Theme 3: Adopt a Change Management Framework
Adopt a change management framework was the third major theme that I derived
from the data with the following subthemes:
engage in business process transformation planning and documenting
assess the vision and need for change
define the goals and objectives
develop a change management plan
identify qualified vendors
build a change management team
create urgency
communicate the change
identify short-term wins
This theme naturally encompasses almost every step in Kotter’s change management
model shown in Figure 1. While I touched on many of these subthemes under other main
themes, as I was constructing major themes and categories it became apparent that
several participants adopted a change management framework. P4 and P5 repeatedly used
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the term change management and described a systematic change management process.
For example, P4 described their firm’s change management process, which entailed (a)
articulating the business problem, (b) constructing a plan with milestones, (c) getting the
right executives engaged, (d) selecting an integrator, (e) engaging the broader team (i.e.,
users), (f) defining how work processes will change, (g) building a roadmap, and (h)
measuring success. And P5’s firm adopted a six-step process when implementing any
new system: (a) setting realistic and actionable goals, (b) researching the right CRM
solution, (c) finding department champions, (d) conducting a cost benefit analysis, (e)
migrating and integrating data, and (f) training the team and testing the system. Table 9
shows results for Theme 3, with a total of 65 references, while Figure 6 is a graphical
representation of the subthemes and participants’ inputs. Additionally, according to P4,
“Organizational change management is critical in any organization, whether introducing
a new tool, changing a process, or bringing new leaders on board.”
Table 9
Emerging Theme 3: Adopt a Change Management Framework
Subthemes
Number of sources
References
Engage in business process transformation
planning and documenting
5
15
Assess the vision and need for change
4
11
Define the goals and objectives
4
7
Develop a change management plan
3
6
Identify qualified vendors
4
9
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Figure 6
Change Management Subthemes
Subthemes
Number of sources
References
Build the change management team
3
6
Create urgency
3
3
Communicate the change
2
5
Identify short-term wins
2
3
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Assess the Vision and Need for Change and Define Goals
According to firm leaders in this study, implementing a CRM system in an SME
necessitates cautious planning and effective change management to ensure the system's
adoption and optimal utilization of organizational resources. For example, P4 and P5
emphasized the significance of change management with new tools and processes and
detailed key steps of the change management model without being preempted or
manipulated by the investigator. The firm leaders in this study adopted a change
management framework by assessing the vision and need for change and defining goals.
Leaders of SME organizations should begin by assessing the need for a CRM and
identifying the specific business goals they wish to achieve. This evaluation assists in
establishing a clear understanding of the reasons for change and lays the groundwork for
effective change management.
When implementing CRM, nearly all participants cited developing a clear
business problem and creating a strategic plan as a strategy for managing organizational
change and resources. While P2, P3, P4, and P5 stated that a small committee worked on
CRM firm-wide goals and objectives, P2, P4, and P5 expressed the importance of
eliciting organizational members' feedback. P1, P2, and P4 added that it is essential to
identify what data is important to various stakeholders. P2 ensured the goals were
transparent and that the organization knew management was not the sole entity
determining or driving the goals and objectives. At the management level, P2’s team
wrote the goals, prioritized them, and discussed how to accomplish them. In P4's firm,
the change management team enumerated their key requirements, and their business
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resources actively participated in this process, where they articulated business objectives
and captured requirements.
Build a Change Management Team
According to SME firm leaders in this study, it is essential to establish a dedicated
change management team comprised of high-performing individuals from various
organizational functions. According to P5 the team should consist of internal department
champions and sales: Sales will "be called upon to make sure that they signed off on the
system" and "that it was built the way they wanted." P1 described how their organization
embraced team members' differences and fostered creativity, acknowledging that some
individuals are difficult to work with, which was all part of the change management
process. P4 and P5 involved users who would be the primary system users. P4 was able
to engage high-performing team members on the CRM change management team by
carving out team members' time and requesting their peers to take on excess capacity.
According to P4, "It required tons of work and input across several organizations: to
obtain the executive team's buy-in to get team members who had other roles
organizational support to commit to participating in the CRM project.”
In addition to internal team members, P4 and P5 also contracted implementation
partners from vendor selection through post-implementation to assist internal CRM
project administrators in managing organizational change and resourcing when
implementing CRM. P5 talked about the pivotal role their implementation partner played
in organizational change management. P5 recalled the following:
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If the partner had already worked with other folks in our industry, we would know
that they could help us avoid potential pitfalls, you know, avoiding going down
the wrong path, avoiding customizing something when you should just use
something that's out-of-the-box.
P5's firm had been doing the same thing for 25 years, so they needed an external
integration change agent experienced with change management. P4's firm leveraged an
integration partner where "most of their employees were former employees of the CRM
company, but that helped to ensure we were accurately documenting."
Develop a Change Management Plan and Identify Qualified Vendors
In the P4 and P5 organizations, executives assigned internal CRM project
managers to oversee project planning activities. P4 and P5 also contracted
implementation partners from vendor selection through post-implementation to assist
internal CRM project administrators in managing organizational change and resourcing
when implementing CRM. Each time P4’s firm introduced a new feature or capability,
they implemented a small CRM project “Because some of our use cases changed so
significantly from pre-pandemic to 2020-2021 engagement.” This mini-implementation
was an extension of the organization’s extreme communication culture. P4 said the
following about the firm’s CRM project managers, “They were the ears in the room to,
you know, call the question if we were going down rabbit holes to refresh us on the
parking lot; they tracked all major risks.” The CRM project managers and the P4 and P5
firms tracked milestones, facilitated many meetings, and led vendor selection, so the role
of the project manager was critical.
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Four sources referenced vendor selection nine times during data collection. P2
had an expanded group participate in customer-driven, scripted demos. P3 set up tiger
teams to evaluate vendors’ CRM systems. P4 did it all: set up tiger teams, researched
CRM solutions, invited an expanded user group to sit in on demos to capture their
attention, and used scorecards to evaluate vendors. P5’s firm’s six-step change process
entailed researching the right CRM solution. The firm selected a CRM and then identified
department champions to embrace CRM and ensure it would succeed upon
implementation.
Create Urgency and Communicate the Change
P2 and P4 executives noted their organization-wide CRM communications as an
effective strategy for managing change and organizational resources when implementing
CRM. P2 said raising the volume of communications, asking people to get involved
before implementing CRM, and maintaining that communication cadence was vital to
their system's success. P4 relied on extreme communication with the team and all those
involved to identify and address significant challenges when implementing CRM. As the
executive sponsor, P4 was always informed and knew when CRM activities occurred.
When P4 needed to address challenging situations or individuals, P4 would conduct
conversations at crucial moments. P4 would react urgently and respond with appropriate
communications to support the project manager's efforts.
To manage change and organizational resources when implementing CRM, firm
leaders had to be transparent and communicate expectations regarding project objectives,
scope, and level of engagement to advance and ensure the project’s success. P4 struggled
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to balance the organization’s participation and input during implementation. P4 attributed
receiving too much input to causing the project to stall and veer off track: “Our guiding
principles throughout should have been those business requirements.” P5 described how
their company relied on their implementation partner’s experience and how crucial it was
to heed their advice to avoid potential pitfalls or the incorrect path. An important insight
from P5’s interview was how the implementation partner communicated what worked
when partnering with other companies in similar industries to avoid adverse outcomes.
Transform Business Processes and Identify Short-Term Wins
Businesses that empower, prepare, and demonstrate practical CRM usage to
employees may experience more success than those requiring employees to log on. P1
and P2 are both sales executives who believe that CRM enhances how information is
shared and can transform how people work. With over 100 employees, P2 wanted to
ensure that users adopted and utilized CRM as “A tool that helps them manage their day.”
P3 considered requirements for business development professionals, capture managers,
and sales engineers. P3 discussed defining rules and necessary items and understanding
various divisions, functional roles, and stakeholders’ business process requirements. In
addition, P3 discussed examining efficiencies and inefficiencies.
P1 shared unconventional strategies for motivating their sales organization to use
CRM to drive short-term wins. P1 told the sales team they would generate more revenue,
make more commissions, and experience more growth using CRM. P3 spoke of how
much salespeople hated to keep up with CRM. To get them past this hurdle, P3 provided
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regular CRM training to improve the quality and increase the quantity of data going into
CRM. According to P3, "They embrace the change until we change something else."
Theme 4: Measure Adoption, System Utilization, and Performance
Measure adoption, system utilization, and performance was the fourth theme that
I derived from the data with (a) drive and reward adoption, (b) monitor system utilization
and performance, (c) assess data quality, (d) provide training, support, and testing, and (e)
mitigate and address resistance subthemes. Measure adoption, system utilization, and
performance partially aligns with Step 7 of Kotter’s change model, which is don’t let up;
sustain momentum and acceleration. Leaders in this study consistently communicated
why a change was initially necessary. Ongoing training, periodic reporting, and
consistent monitoring are essential to sustain change. Table 10 shows results for Theme
4, with a total of 114 references, while Figure 7 is a graphical representation of the
subthemes and participants’ inputs.
Table 10
Emergent Theme 4: Measure Adoption, System Utilization, and Performance
Subthemes
Number of sources
References
Drive and reward adoption
5
42
Monitor system utilization and performance
5
19
Assess data quality
5
18
Provide training, support, and testing
5
20
Mitigate and address resistance
5
15
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Figure 7
System Utilization and Performance Subthemes
Provide Training, Support, and Testing
To manage change and organizational resources when implementing CRM, the
SME firm leaders in this study invested in training programs to help employees
comprehend the CRM system's capabilities, how it enhances their daily work, and how it
aligns with their corporate objectives and professional goals. Several executives (P1 and
P3) said CRM was not an easy tool to understand: "CRM technology is not intuitive as
you and I use Facebook or LinkedIn," according to P1. P1 said their sales team needed
more technical savvy and proper training to overcome resistance. In some environments,
executives (i.e., P2, P4, and P5) utilized early adopters and high performers to coach and
support users through resistance and towards proficiency. To address usability and
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facilitate training, P3 and P4 used work sessions to show users how to use CRM and to
show CRM's capabilities.
P3 said communication, training, and education are essential, as "Addressing
usability with training and education is probably one of the keys to getting past that
hurdle to where they get excited to use it, and they know how to use it well." In training
their organization, P3 further stated, "It was very apparent that most people did not know
the CRM's capabilities." According to sales leader P3, good salespeople are more adept at
developing customer relationships than performing administrative CRM tasks. In the P4
organization, "The implementation partner created all necessary training documentation."
Additionally, IT maintains a knowledge base of current job aids, including
comprehensive training material accessible by end users.
As an IT executive that hired an experienced implementation partner, P5's
organization had support pre-implementation, during implementation, and post-
implementation. In addition to having an implementation partner, P5 had "department
champions that went all the way down to department managers that were very involved in
the day-to-day building and configuring of this CRM system." One of their department
champions was the president of one of their distributions who "We showed demos to
make sure we were going down the right path." Although training and testing was the last
step in In P5's organization's change management process, there was clear evidence that
as an executive P5 paid a great deal of attention to the system testing and training. The
CRM implementation partner provided knowledge transfer and training, equipping
employees with the skills necessary to utilize the CRM system following implementation.
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Monitor System Utilization and Performance and Address Issues
To manage change and organizational resources when implementing CRM, the
SME firm leaders in this study regularly monitored system implementation, system
performance, usability, usage, and measured success. P1 inspects the sales teams’
activities in CRM on a weekly basis and communicates with the team on why proper
usage and tracking of opportunities is critical. According to P1, "I look at I look at the
inaccuracies and forecasts and customer information sales activities"; "... I see who's
paying attention to it and who's not." P2 had the following to say about monitoring, "Part
of the monitoring progress is having one on ones and discussions with the managers that
are most keenly involved in the CRM system." Monitoring performance implies that
there are governance and policies in place.
Regarding system governance, P2 had the following comment:
You really need a governance board or a government structure that makes sure
that people know the pieces that they must put into CRM. Make sure that you
know there are some policies so when you enter a note about a customer visit or
an opportunity, there are some essential things that we want to see so it's
important to capture that in like a policy or procedure.
For the sales team, as retold by P3, updating CRM was an afterthought. When asked
about some of the key challenges experienced when implementing CRM, P3 said the
following:
CRM is an amazing tool, but most people in a company really don't understand
the power behind CRM. There are multiple CRMs out there, but there are deep
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titans, and those titans can run an entire business from the front end to the back
end through financials, supply chain, and product development. There are so
many things that CRM can do, and I think that the biggest challenge is their
understanding and ability to use it correctly.
One of the strategies P4 used to manage change and organizational resources
when implementing CRM was "identifying how we will measure success once this
system is implemented." P4 implemented two CRM system implementations. With the
first CRM implementation, according to P4, "we failed with identifying what would be
considered our measure of success." They aimed to launch the system and ensure people
were using it, which P4 later recognized as an ineffective indicator of success.
"Sometimes people only want to share stuff, you know, through their leadership
chain," according to P5. So P5 had regular sessions with leadership so force issues to the
surface, address and resolve them. P5's implementation partner helped the organization
navigate implementation challenges, and learn from other projects, so relying on their
implementation partner's experience was big. P4 and P4 established key performance
indicators to evaluate the system's efficacy and to ensure that it correlated with the
intended goals.
Assess Data Quality
To manage change and organizational resources when implementing CRM, the
SME firm leaders in this study attributed decision making reliability to data accuracy.
Consistent, accurate, and complete data resulted in positive analyses and better decision
making. As the sales senior vice president, P1 considered the sales representative as the
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leader working on a customer project. The executive team supporting that sales leader
relied on that individual "to provide very important information on what needed to be
delivered to the customer," according to P1. Data quality is critical because the
information is visible throughout the "top ranks of the company where the decisions are
made." CRM data is the "foundation for our business," according to P1.
With accurate data, businesses can customize customer interactions and
communications, resulting in stronger business relationships and more personalized and
targeted engagements. P2 shared that they have over 1,000 customers that customer
success representatives track so, "helping them see the value is much more than just
management oversight." Users' confidence in a CRM system is directly proportional to
the accuracy of its data. "I'm constantly questioning the quality of the data, the quality of
the pipeline, the velocity of the pipeline moving from stage to stage. Data quality is
something that is stay really concerned about." One of the primary strategies P3 used to
manage change and organizational resources when implementing CRM was deciding
what data was essential by functional role and configuring CRM to meet users'
expectations.
The participants in this study also insinuated that data quality, complexity, and
business priority impacted their ability to integrate with other enterprise platforms.
According to P2,
Salesforce doesn't plug into any other systems. I think an opportunity for
tomorrow is to look at how we can turn this data into actionable intelligence for
us and perhaps lead to better marketing campaigns or better follow-up with
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customers. There are boundless opportunities for our Salesforce system to connect
to some of our other systems to create a larger ecosystem of customer engagement
and, of course, sales engagement.
P2 implemented a standalone Salesforce CRM that did not integrate with other enterprise
systems.
One of the strategies P4 used to manage change and organizational resources
when implementing CRM was trying to identify integrations early. P5 experienced
challenges with integration points into CRM. P5 shared the following:
We had to get a lot of data out of the CRM. We had to build quite a few reports
that the business needed to be able to monitor the business. So, there was a lot of
work around all of that, and really, when it came to integration time, making sure
all of those were working together was crucial.
P5 further shared the following: "Once they would get into production and then look at
the report, they wanted modifications. There was a lot of back and forth even after we
went to production." The issue was "the way we went about delivering" and the
"organizational cultural change," as the organization was doing "something they had
never done before." While P1, P2, and P3 barely scratched the surface in mentioning
integration within the context of data quality, P4 and P5 worked alongside their
integration partners to identify integration requirements and plan for integration activities
despite the complexities.
100
Drive and Reward Adoption
Executives in this study played a crucial role in promoting and rewarding CRM
adoption by consistently communicating the importance of CRM and articulating the
system's benefits and how they align with employee goals and organizational objectives.
P2 facilitated adoption through training and support. P2 selected a subset of the
organization for pre-training and made sure the rest of the organization knew who they
were so they could reach out to them for guidance and support. P2 added, "I was strong
proponent of once we reached this point in the process that we to take time out to
celebrate what we've accomplished." Accordingly, P2 ran contests to encourage users to
view training videos, a tactic they attribute to the company's increased user adoption.
According to P1, people who comprehended CRM's value and recognized that it
would help them become more efficient were more prone to adopt CRM. P3 said it was a
"challenge getting people to use it correctly"; "it is not something that happens
overnight." The number one metric P4 used to determine CRM success was user
adoption:
We're leveraging that tool and have pulled in tons of data business data where
we've been able to create a scorecard for our customers like a health score where
we can measure their satisfaction, measure sentiment, measure how they're
adopting our tools and systems. We use all that data collection and combine it
with the adoption metrics for our teams to truly determine the success and can
predict patterns and behaviors of our customers based on all those contributing
metrics.
101
Executives can increase CRM system adoption by involving employees in the
implementation process, providing ongoing training, and helping to cultivate a sense of
ownership and engagement among employees.
Mitigate and Address Resistance
In this study, resistance was not a prevalent topic among participants, but there
were some insights worth scholarly discussion. To manage change and organizational
resources when implementing CRM, the executives in this study mitigated and overcame
resistance by communicating the need for change and emphasizing its effects on
employees. According to P1, in some cases, team members were not comfortable sharing
their activities or information in CRM; they had trust issues. Instead of ignoring
resistance, P1 mitigated resistance by shifting to a compassionate and nurturing
leadership style.
Although P2 and P3 did not use the term resistance, both participants spoke of
how their sales teams were initially reluctant to use CRM and that they mitigated that
reluctance by communicating CRM's value and offering training and support. P4 and P5
were in challenging environments with static processes where people wanted to continue
doing business the same way despite expert advice. According to P5, New leadership
"realized it's not cheaper to do it yourself if you've never done something; it's actually
going to be longer because you don't know what you're doing." Another tactic that these
leaders employed to mitigate resistance was to build a change team and identify
champions within organizations. These were diverse individuals relative to position and
level who were high performers and had charisma and the ability to coach and motivate
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others. In addition to actively and frequently listening to employees' needs and concerns,
these executives nurtured a creative and positive environment conducive to success.
Application to Professional Practice
In this qualitative multiple case study, I explored strategies firm leaders used to
manage change and organizational resources when implementing CRM. The applicability
and relevance of the study's insights and evidence-based findings can help SME firm
leaders increase efficiency, effectiveness, and business success. Businesses can use these
insights to adapt not only their CRM implementation strategies but their activities leading
up to implementation, recognizing not only industry challenges but also organizational
ones. SME firm leaders can also use the findings of this study as valuable data to support
decision making, whether implementing a CRM solution or different technology solution,
restructuring organizational processes, or implementing a significant change.
Decision makers can utilize these findings to make informed decisions more
likely to result in positive outcomes and mitigate risks. Implementing change within an
organization can be difficult. Change management frameworks, models, and strategies
can be the lens that practitioners use to approach large-scale, complex, and costly
technical implementations, such as CRM. Utilizing these findings, firm leaders can more
effectively navigate the complexities of CRM implementations, change management, and
change resistance, increasing the likelihood of success. It was enlightening to learn about
external CRM integration partners and the crucial role they performed. A partnership
with an integrator may be advantageous for SMEs implementing CRM for the first time.
103
Research findings can provide insights into prevalent organizational challenges
and suggestions for addressing them. These difficulties may involve executive leadership,
management, a change management team, external integration experts, and full employee
engagement. By employing research-based solutions, businesses can surmount these
obstacles and create a more collaborative, creative, productive, and trusting and
sustainable organizational culture. The relevance of study findings to improved business
practice rests in their capacity to inform decision making, guide strategy development,
improve outcomes, address obstacles, support change management, and promote
continuous improvement. By leveraging research insights, firm executives can make
more informed decisions and succeed tremendously in an ever-competitive business
environment.
Implications for Social Change
When firm leaders properly manage change and organizational resources when
implementing CRM, the positive implications for social change include data-driven
informed decision making; increased productivity; and improved data quality, access, and
security. These favorable results contribute to a more customer-focused, efficient, and
socially responsible organizational culture. Businesses can more efficiently address
customer questions and concerns with a centralized CRM. This enhanced customer
service can boost trust, benefiting the business and society by encouraging positive
customer interactions. Implementing CRM requires executive sponsorship and
commitment, cross-functional collaboration, organizational alignment, and an augmented
workforce (employees, subcontractors, and consultants). A collaborative approach
104
promotes communication and knowledge sharing among various organizational
departments and levels.
As a team of expanded resources collaborate to implement and utilize CRM, they
must foster an environment of consistent communication over time. These organizational
changes can extend beyond CRM and impact team dynamics, social interactions, and
collaboration in other business areas. Moreover, CRM systems can automate manual,
time-consuming administrative tasks and streamline business processes, resulting in
greater productivity and efficiency. CRM users can focus on activities that add value,
such as building customer relationships and solving problems. This enhanced
productivity can improve resource utilization and economic growth, which will have a
positive effect on society.
Recommendations for Action
This qualitative multiple case study explored strategies firm leaders used to
manage change and organizational resources when implementing CRM. When
implementing CRM, the firm leaders in this study (a) secured executive sponsorship and
management buy-in; (b) secured critical resources; (c) adopted a change management
framework or model; and (d) measured adoption, system utilization, and performance.
With 50% of organizations unsuccessfully implementing CRM (Meena & Sahu, 2021)
and 70 to 80% of CRM projects failing, being abandoned, or never launching (Chen et
al., 2020; Delpechitre et al., 2019; Deshmukh et al., 2020; Ngo & Vu, 2021), SME firm
leaders should note this study's results regarding successful CRM implementations. In
addition, most existing CRM literature highlights CRM project failure, while effective
105
implementations receive less attention (Refer to Table 2 and Table 3). Given the
investments businesses have made in CRM systems, the CRM failure rates are
concerning.
The study revealed that firm leaders would benefit from adopting a change
management model when implementing CRM. It is worth noting that McLaren et al.
(2023) critiqued and challenged Kotter's change model because of how building urgency
to support change initiatives can increase employee anxiety and stress. Instead, McLaren
et al. (2023) "encourage change practitioners to move towards a more appreciative (and
socially responsible) approach to change management." McLaren et al. urged
practitioners to consider a more socially responsible change approach and to create
urgency by communicating a compelling reason for the future state.
Before careening forward and treating CRM like just another big project, firm
leaders should embrace change management and prepare the organization for change.
Firm leaders should consider the following strategic activities to manage change and
organizational resources when implementing CRM:
1. Identify the business need
2. Define and communicate clear objectives
3. Obtain feedback, incorporate, and refine objectives
4. Secure executive sponsorship and funding
5. Secure stakeholders’ buy-in and management commitment
6. Plan and allocate critical CRM resources (i.e., identify the change
management team)
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7. Adopt a change management framework
8. Partner with a CRM integrator to determine system requirements and conduct
vendor selection and due diligence
9. Configure and test system
10. Train users
11. Provide change management support
12. Implement system
13. Monitor progress, survey organization and make continuous improvements
14. Provide ongoing training
I will share the findings of the study with sales and marketing professionals, CRM
professionals (i.e., integration partners), IT professionals, and corporate executives. I also
plan to disseminate the findings of this study to SMEs, educational institutions, a CRM
system integrator that partners with Microsoft Dynamics 365, and companies like Gartner
and Forrester Research that could benefit from them via academic journals and trade
journals. I am amenable to sharing my insights on the strategic importance of managing
change and organizational resources when implementing CRM.
Recommendations for Further Research
Numerous contemporary arguments support CRM as an indispensable business
tool (i.e., Jager, 2021; Shukla & Pattnaik, 2019). Some of the critical concepts prevalent
in recent CRM research include using CRM to improve customer satisfaction, the adverse
effects of CRM usage, CRM’s impact on business innovation and processes, CRM
project failure with limited focus on successful implementations, top management
107
support, organizing around CRM, CRM implementation, and CRM usefulness. However,
there is limited empirical research on successful CRM integrations with emerging
technologies (Meena & Sahu, 2021; Tazkarji & Stafford, 2020) and research showing the
influence of CRM on sales performance (Aydin & Akyollu, 2021; Chen et al., 2021;
Elfarmawi, 2019; Wang & Lien, 2019). Some additional areas that researchers may have
yet to explore are the socioeconomic impact of CRM adoption, industry-specific CRM
applications, and CRM implementations. Researchers could investigate the effects of
CRM on employment functions, workforce dynamics, and CRM's social and economic
implications. Regarding industry-specific CRM applications, P4 and P5 participants in
the study benefited from working with an integrator with experience working with clients
in their industry. Because of the integrator's experience, they assisted the business in
defining requirements and system configuration.
I recommend that researchers consider focusing their studies on any major
enterprise-wide successful system implementation of their choosing (i.e., CRM, ERP, or
CPQ). Researchers should consider using Kotter’s change model to ground their study. If
not Kotter’s model, perhaps another contemporary change management model or pricing
model (i.e., Porter’s Generic Strategies). There is a dearth of research that elucidates the
strategies external project managers and system integrators employ to implement
enterprise-wide complex systems in partnership with corporations. I recommend that
researchers target B2B system integrators who have had experience working with a
myriad of companies implementing complex B2B technical systems.
108
Reflections
This topic piqued my interest because there was evidence of an apparent business
problem that could potentially impact my livelihood, my family, my employer, our
customers, my community, and the global economy. When I began researching
contemporary business problems, I was alarmed by the number of studies on CRM
failure. From 2000 to 2020, researchers published 104 studies on CRM failure (Meena &
Sahu, 2021). I was interested in this topic because of CRM's practical relevance as a
contemporary global business tool. Analysts are expecting CRM spending to reach USD
80 billion by 2025 (Grand View Research, 2021). Yet, an estimated 60-80% of CRM
projects fail (Deshmukh et al., 2020).
For this study, I minimized potential biases throughout the interview process by
not volunteering my perspective and not influencing participants' responses. I report to
the CEO as a business development and capture executive overseeing a Bid Operations
organization. Bid Operations, and the entire enterprise, is reliant on the customer-facing
sales organization for valid customer insights to prepare highly competitive bid
responses. This critical customer intel is housed in CRM, and it must be current. With
current customer information, organizations can effectively target customers by different
factors (i.e., demographics, preferences, purchasing history, and location).
Based on the findings from this study, I understand the strategies that firm leaders
used to manage change and organizational resources when implementing CRM. Using
Kotter's change management model, firm leaders can more effectively navigate the
complexities of large-scale change initiatives and encourage CRM adoption by
109
appropriately positioning CRM’s value instead of mandating usage. After concluding this
research, the concepts that have influenced my thinking the most are the positive impact
of change management models and system integrators on CRM implementations. Some
businesses need to pay more attention to potential CRM implementation difficulties and
consider the need for expert support and a structured methodology. The companies
explored in this study considered outside help and change management and understood
the benefits. Having completed the study has allowed me to contribute to successful SME
CRM implementations, not just in Texas but around the world.
Conclusion
This qualitative multiple case study explored strategies firm leaders used to
manage change and organizational resources when implementing CRM. Firm leaders'
difficulties managing change and organizational resources when implementing CRM,
resulting in failed large-scale change initiatives, brought about the need for this study.
Firm leaders should pay attention to CRM and how successful firms implement CRM
because their CRM implementation process will impact their organization and their
bottom line. Implementing a CRM system requires a significant capital investment in
software and infrastructure and variable expenses for periodic system testing, training,
and staff augmentation. Change management initiatives are inherently fraught with
resistance. Addressing resistance requires a people-centric, empathic approach, which
warrants proper execution. Firm leaders should regard CRM implementation as an
ongoing process of continuous refinement.
110
By paying close attention to the people (various stakeholders, departments,
managers, users, and organizations) before and during implementation, firm leaders can
lay the groundwork for a successful CRM change initiative. Firm leaders are the key.
Their engagement and oversight contribute to realizing CRM's full potential for
enhancing customer relationships, driving business growth, and achieving organizational
goals. Implementing CRM involves multiple teams, such as executives, IT, sales,
marketing, and operations. This collaborative team must have a cohesive change
management strategy, be aligned, receive consistent messaging from firm leaders, and
would benefit from CRM integration experts' guidance to ensure the implementation's
overall success.
111
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