Dr. Sayyed Mohsen Allameh Assistant professor, University of Isfahan,Iran

Transcription

1 Analysis of Relationship between Knowlge Management and Customer Relationship Management with Customer Knowlge Management (Case Study At Azaran Valve Co.) Abstract Dr. Sayy Mohsen Allameh Assistant professor, University of Isfahan,Iran Dr. Arash Shahin Associate professor, University of Isfahan,Iran Babak Tabanifar MA student, University of Isfahan,Iran Knowlge (KM) and customer relationship (CRM) are both emphasiz on the allocation of resources to business supportive activities in order to gain competitive advantages.. Merging the two concepts of knowlge and customer relationship in customer knowlge (CKM) model can promote the benefits of employing each of them and ruce the risk of implementation failure. This study sought to analyze the relationship between knowlge and customer relationship with customer knowlge. The propos research model has been provid using customer knowlge literature. To test the model and the research assumptions, a clos response questionnaire was design and distribut among managers and employees of Azaran Valve Co. After data collection, structural equation modeling was us to analysis and Cronbach's alpha coefficient was us to determine the reliability of the questionnaire. The results show that knowlge and customer relationship both relat to customer knowlge directly and indirectly through channel and interaction. Keywords: knowlge, customer relationship, customer knowlge, channel, interaction. 65

2 Introduction Customer knowlge has been known as a main source that can be us to support research and development, improvement and innovation, facilitate better understanding of market opportunities and support long-term relation with customers. Capturing this knowlge and analyzing it, the organization will achieve competitive advantage and can offer new products and services, improve customer service, respect customers, make customers satisfi, find customer nes and respond to those nes (Afrazeh, 25).Customer knowlge is a process that involves the identification, acquisition and use of knowlge beyond organizational boundaries, the customer knowlge with the aim of creating value for the organization (Paquette, 24). Customer knowlge can also be defin as a process which helps integrating customer relationship and knowlge (Gebert et al, 22). In fact CKM tries to creating continuous interaction through various communicative channels to gain information about customers, using their experience and knowlge in presentation of products and services. Therefore by creating multiple integrat communication channels, the most efficient and least costly combination of channels must be select to communicate with customers (Gebert et al, 23). In this research, the relation between knowlge and customer relationship with customer knowlge has been studi by considering the intermiate role of channel and interaction in Azaran Valve Co. First the literature relat to the research variables will be present. Then relationship between these variables will be discuss and a conceptual model of research will present. Next, the research methodology and findings are present and finally results will be discuss. Literature Review In recent years, various organization and companies start to join to knowlge process and new concepts such as knowlge work, knowlge worker, knowlge and knowlge organization inform the intense of this process. Peter Drucker by using these words informs a new kind of organization that uses power of their minds instead of their physical power. According to this theory, in future, societies can expect to develop that have more knowlge (Drucker, 1998). Knowlge is simply the ability, skill and experience of implementation and transfer of data, information and ideas to do things better, make decisions and solve problems (Milton, 27). Today, successful organizations are able to applying knowlge and to transform it into organizational knowlge. Organizational knowlge is an ability that develop by members of organization in order to creating distinction in process of work in specific field by determining set of general concepts, that its application depends on mass perceptions(tsoukas and Vladimirou, 21). 66

3 Knowlge Management Today is the era of knowlge-bas organizations. In order to access new resources, knowlge has attend new theories such as knowlge community with the goal of achieving immense resources of customer knowlge. Today, creating and maintaining relationships with customers, not just to sell products and services, but also to access their information and knowlge, is a new concept discuss in knowlge systems (Retna and Tee, 211). In recent years, knowlge acts as the most interesting and challenging issue of business and its application is extending along with other topics of field. Knowlge is the process which help organizations to identify, select, organize, disseminate and transfer knowlge and skills that are part of history of the organization and generally are Unstructur(Manning,29). If knowlge has a strategic role that organization can use it in value creating activities and use knowlge as a tool to implementation of existing opportunities in competitive market. Because maintaining a competitive advantage for companies is not possible anymore by doing things better and faster, but it is possible when it can't be imitat by others. To achieve sustainable competitive advantage, considering the available knowlge and make effective use of it is very important as well as creating the structure to use modern knowlge (Davenport, 21).The most important role that can be attribut to knowlge is to consider it as a change methodology. Knowlge in one hand can be an important changing factor in organization through taking new knowlge into system and on the other hand by effective of this knowlge. Because of the proximity to corporate decisions and actions, knowlge can far more improve performance than data and information and consequently can improve the quality of services in organizations in general and public organizations in particular(jennex,28). Customer Relationship Management Customer relationship is a process to collect information about customers and its aim is to find and record customers' important features to implement marketing activities base on customers demand and quality. Customer relationship is the process of attracting, keeping, and growing profitable customers and by focusing on the traits and characteristics that demonstrate the add value to customers, trying to loyal customers (Handen, 2). Handen believes that CRM is an implementation of comprehensive solution that by integrating people, process and technology make a perfect communication among all activities of customers to enhance relationship of organizations and their customers (Handen, 2). CRM is root in communicative marketing and improves long term profitability by changing marketing way base on exchanging and emphasizing on presence of new customer, to keep customers by effective of customer relationship. Therefor CRM is a complicat method that extracts customers data from all customers contact points to company. Also effective of information plays an important role in implementation 67

4 of CRM (Peppard, 2). CRM causes customer satisfaction, saving costs and more products and incoming. Hence the deployment of customer-orient is one of the important issues in the necessities of organizations survival in today's competitive world, because customer relationship makes connection between business processes and customer strategy to increase profitability and customers' loyalty gradually (Chalmeta, 26). Customer Knowlge Management Customer knowlge (CKM) is a process to help integration of customer relationship and knowlge (Gibbert, 22). In fact, customer knowlge transfer knowlge processes from theoretical goals to appli goals. CKM follows to creating an opportunity to use customers of organization as a partner to create value for the organization. CKM is a strategic process that superior companies use it to relief their customers from passive receptor of products and services and make them powerful knowlge partners(paquette, 26). So customer knowlge managers unlike customer relationship managers do not try to keep old customers, but they focus on work with new customers in a totally new environment. Generally, customer knowlge is a combination of customer relationship and knowlge and an appropriate strategy to gain knowlge from customers and present the best and the most useful knowlge to them.ckm can be summariz as follow: 1- Creating proper communication with customer and gaining company's vital knowlge of him 2- Summarizing and documentation of knowlge and distribute it between other staff. 3- To transfer this knowlge to the upper layers of organization for subsequent decisions on products and services tailor to customer nes. 4- Translating this knowlge to customers by presenting products and services according to customer's requirements. In consideration of relationship between knowlge and customer relationship with customer knowlge, the miatory role of channel and interaction has been studi. Channel is set of analysis processes, planning, organizing and control of distribution and marketing channels of organization.in particular, channel is a way or duct that products or services move from manufacturer to final customer (Rajiv et al, 22). When a company is willing to engage with customers, it tends to use combination of different channels or mia such as advertising, direct contact, sales promotion, public communication 68

5 and so on. If a company wants to be successful base on its impression on customers and establish a relationship with them through the communication channel, it should be sure of the message stability provid by these tools (Storbaka, 21). Interaction is analysis and selection of modern, optimiz, integrat and low cost communication channels in order to achieve optimal channel mix. The objective is to increase the quality and value of interactions while at the same time decreasing the cost of interactions by shifting customers to less costly channels (Gebert, 22). According to theoretical literature, research hypothesis are as follow: H1: relationship between knowlge and customer knowlge H2: relationship between customer relationship and customer knowlge H3: miating role of interaction in relation of knowlge and customer knowlge H4: miating role of channel in relation of knowlge and customer knowlge H5: miating role of interaction in relation of customer relationship and customer knowlge H6: miating role of channel in relation of customer relationship and customer knowlge According to research theoretical literature and hypothesis, the conceptual model of this research is shown in figure

6 Figure 1: Research Conceptual Model Research Methodology Research Population and Sample This research is appli base on goal and descriptive survey bas on data collection. Statistic population of this research consists of Azaran valve co. staff. Total number of employees are 177 people; the number of sample is estimat 135 people according to Kerjesi and Morgan table. To collect data, a researcher made clos responses questionnaire design and distribut among the survey respondents which 133 questionnaires have been approv. Research Variable Measurement In order to confirm the validity of the questionnaire, approval of experts and university professors and confirmatory factor analysis was us. Cronbach's alpha was us to determine the reliability of the test. Cronbach's alpha for all questions relating to the variables in the analytical model is /83 respectively, which is an able level. Results Results Of Factor Analysis The results of testing the research factor averages present in table

7 Table 1 : Results of variables mean test factor average Stddeviatio n t Sig. (2- tail) Mean differenc e KM 3/5815 /473 14/176 /5814 CRM 3/8717 /446 24/845 /8717 CKM 3/4552 /5159 1/176 /4552 Channel 3/8722 /612 16/73 /8722 Interaction 3/75 / /369 /75 Given that the value of Sig relevant to all factors is smaller than /5 and according to confidence interval /95, it can be conclud that factors mean are above average at an able level. Measurement Model Test To determine to what extent the indexes are able for measurement models, first all measurement models should be analyz separately. Bas on adopting such a method, the 5 measurement models of the relevant variables, are test separately. The overall fit indices for the measurement model are present in Table 2. Table 2: overall indexes of fit in measurement models index CMIN/DF GFI RMR CFI NFI IFI KM 1/9 /86 /8 /96 /93 /96 CRM 1/52 /927 /38 /973 /926 /973 CKM 1/69 /937 /7 /974 /941 /975 Interaction 1/58 /989 /13 /995 /986 /995 Channel According to the above results it can be conclud that the measurement model are fit well. In other words, general indexes confirm that data supports the model. 71

8 Results Of Path Analysis After review and approval of the measurement model in the first step, the second step of the analysis is to test the hypotheses using path analysis. Overall indices of path analysis fitness are present in table 3. Table 3: model fitness indexes index CMIN/DF IFI GFI NFI CFI RMSEA value 2/63 /952 /898 /925 /952 /74 Acceptance area 1> 3< </9 </9 </9 </9 >/1 According to data from the above table it can be conclud that the overall index show a good fit of the model is given by data. In other words we can say that the data collect are support in the model well. Structural equation model is present in Figure 2. Figure 2 : Structural equation model 72

9 Test The Hypothesis Research hypotheses with regression coefficients and partial index values for each hypothesis are present in Table 4. Table 4: hypotheses testing results No hypothesis KM KM CRM CRM Interaction Channel KM CRM Interaction Channel Interaction Channel CKM CKM CKM CKM Regressi on coefficie /15 nt /27 Critic al value 2/4 result 73 /17 /23 /36 /33 /33 /2 4/14 2/72 3/67 4/85 4/39 6/34 4/48 P /1 6 As can be seen in Table 4, according to the P value of the regression coefficients and hypothesis, it can be said that research hypotheses are with certainty of /95. Discussion and Conclusion According to the results of the data analysis, the first hypothesis with regression coefficients /33 and second hypothesis with regression coefficients /2, both hypotheses with confidence /95 are. So we can conclude that knowlge and customer relationship have direct relation with customer knowlge that the results are consistent with results of other research that has been done in this area, including Bueren et al (24), Rollins et al (25) and Salojärvi et al (21). According to results of this research, customer knowlge is the result of real-time deployment of knowlge and customer relationship and as the results show in Azaran valve co, there is a direct relationship between knowlge and customer relationship with customer knowlge. The results of the tests of hypotheses show that confirmation of the relationship between knowlge and interaction with regression coefficients /15 and also confirmation of the relationship between customer knowlge and interaction with regression coefficients /36, With the /95 confident it can be said that interaction has a miating role in the relationship between knowlge and customer knowlge, and therefore the hypothesis with the /95 confident will be. Other hypothesis for this study will be approv like the same and will with the /95 confident. In relation to miatory role of interaction and channel

10 in relationship between knowlge and customer relationship with customer knowlge, the model provid by Gebert et al(22) can only be not which has discuss about this issue in brief. According to relationship between factors of knowlge and customer relationship with customer knowlge, Azaran Co can make sense of the information exchange with customers exploiting appropriate facilities and the latest technology and using group interviews and surveys periodically in order to overcome shortcomings in their products and services and enhance customer loyalty rates may apply. Azaran managers can also take advantage of customer knowlge through creating infrastructures and providing proper facilities for sharing knowlge between employees and organizational units. While strengthen communication channels with customers and build continuous relationships with them can lead to successful customer knowlge programs and take advantage of its benefits. In this context, improving the customer relationship system and make appropriate communication between organization units, in order to flow information of customers, changes in the market and know the best ways of providing services can help Azaran make optimal use of customer knowlge. In this study in order to analysis the relationship between knowlge and customer relationship with customer knowlge and make connection between customers and company, the present model consist of two factors, interaction and channel. Inde, interaction and channel are as miating tools for knowlge exchange and interaction between companies and customers which proper use of these tools lead to achieving of customer knowlge goals. As statistical analysis shows the intermiary role of channel and interaction, in relationship between knowlge and customer knowlge and also between customer relationship and customer knowlge has been approv. That is by enhance capabilities of these miatory tools, Level to achieve customer knowlge goals will increas and company will be more successful in marketing activities and designing and manufacturing products in accordance with the nes and demands of customers. To do this research, the researcher was confront with the limitations that some of them have been fulfill and some are outside the control of the researcher. Some of these limitations are as follow. 1- Limit timeframe 2- limit the society to be investigat samples 3- limitation of the results generalization because the sample is limit to Azaran valve co 4- The lack of a standard questionnaire about the study and use of researcher made questionnaire 74

11 5- Lack of done field research and do not understanding of the importance research on customer knowlge 6- Lack of respondents understanding of concepts of research such as knowlge and customer knowlge So, it is recommend for future researchers to keep in mind these limitations and pay attention to other aspects of customer knowlge and identify other effective factors of customer knowlge in organization. Moreover, implementation of this research in other industries such as banking and insurance industry is also would be an important area for future research. While researchers can do this research on the different time periods and in different societies and compare its results together. References Afrazeh, A. (25), Knowlge Management Concepts, Models, Measurement and Implementation, Amirkabir University, Tehran. Bueren, A., Schierholz, R., Kolbe, L., Brenner, W. (24), Customer Knowlge Management Improving Performance of Customer Relationship Management with Knowlge Management, Proceings of the 37th Hawaii International conference on system sciences. Chalmeta, R. (26), Methodology for customer relationship,the Journal of Systems and Software, vol. 79, pp Davenport T. H., Harris J. G., Kohli A. K.,(21),. How Do they Know Their Customers So Well?, MIT Sloan Management Review; 42(2): Drucker P.F.,(1999), Knowlge worker productivity, California Management Review,. 41( 2): Gebert, H., Geib, M., Kolbe, L. M. and Riempp, G.,(22), Towards Customer Knowlge Management Integrating Customer Relationship Management and Knowlge Management concepts, The Second International Conference on Electronic Business, Taipei, Taiwan, pp Gebert, H., Geib, M., Kolbe, L.M. and Brenner, W., (۳۰۰۲) Knowlge-enabl customer relationship. Journal of Knowlge Management 7(5): Gibbert, Michael, Leibold, Marius, Probst, Gilbert, (22), Five Styles of Customer Knowlge Management, and How Smart Companies Use Them to Create Value, European Management Journal,2(5). 75

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13 Storbacka, Kaj, Jarmo Lehtinen., (21). Customer relationship : creating competitive advantage through win-win relationship strategies. Singapore: McGraw-Hill Companies. Tsoukas, H. and Vladimirou, E., (21). What is organizational knowlge, Journal of Management Studies, 38(7):