CRM's Influence on Entrepreneurial Marketing

After reviewing the most recent literature on the impact of the use of customer relationship management strategy and systems in the field of entrepreneurial marketing, the general conclusion is that effectively a good efficient use of these tools appears in these studies as a strong link between business management and company results. The second important conclusion is that this is due to the fact that the use of CRM favors the adaptation of entrepreneurial marketing efforts to the most effective and relevant needs and focuses of action in the environment of the company's customers.

Looking at the results of the study, it has been identified which entrepreneurial marketing and CRM dimensions are the most relevant in previous studies. The main contribution of this study has been to identify these dimensions, as a result of the points of interest raised by previous studies, and therefore covering the gap in the literature as no previous study has been found that followed the parameters used in the present investigation. This contribution provides interesting ideas about what future lines of research can be undertaken by researchers interested in the impact of the use of CRM combined withentrepreneurial marketing in the search for a joint and powerful impact on the effective management of customer relationships within the current changing and dynamic world in which entrepreneurship finds its greatest asset to demonstrate its power to transform the market and society as a whole..

The most important conclusion for future research is that the field of scientific research on the use of CRM as a strategy and technological solution that accelerates and stimulates the entrepreneurial marketing, is developing and growing, as reflect by most of the recent bibliometric studies on the subject. In this study, after a process of careful selection, a detailed and exhaustive analysis of 86 scientific research articles was conducted, providing valuable information for business decision makers in this area. The timeframe for selection of these articles was 2015 to 2019. In 2015, scientific research interest in this year began to rise. Although the timeframe spanned the period up to the year 2019, some articles approved for publication in that year are still awaiting publication.

The second conclusion is that CRM retention and CRM development are the key CRM dimensions for business decision makers looking for tools to create successful entrepreneurial marketing strategies. Regarding the distribution of articles by CRM dimensions, customer retention is the most common CRM dimension where marketing is used to support decision making, with 32 articles focusing on this dimension (37.21% of the selected articles). Within customer retention, loyalty programs represent the CRM element addressed by most of these articles, with 23 articles (71.88% of the articles on customer retention). The second most influential CRM dimension was identified as customer development, with 23 articles (26.74% of the total). Customer lifetime value was the most highly valued CRM element within this dimension, with 14 articles (60.87% of the customer development articles). These two CRM dimensions (CRM retention and CRM development) are addressed by 55 (63.95%) of the 86 selected articles, so they may be considered the most influential CRM dimensions. This conclusion was expected and does not imply any contradiction with what CRM systems and strategies have been designed for, since (as seen in the articles reviewed) modern marketing theories indicate that the best business success policy is the retention of good existing customers. Although it was an expected conclusion, this study has shown that it is indeed true and demonstrable, and that the desired and expected benefits of the use of CRM confirm the initial hypotheses. On the other hand, and as can be seen in the following conclusion, it has been more specifically identified which CRM elements (directly related to these most relevant dimensions identified in this case) are the ones that have the greatest impact on good management of the business. business marketing.

The third conclusion of the study, in relation to the CRM elements with the greatest impact on decision making in entrepreneurial marketing, is that the most decisive CRM elements are loyalty programs, customer lifetime value, and direct marketing. The most commonly used CRM element for assisting business decision makers is loyalty programs, with 23 results (26.75% of the total), followed by customer lifetime value and direct marketing, each with 14 results (16.28% of the total). These three categories account for a total of 51 of the selected articles, representing 59.31% of the total. The third conclusion is fully consistent with the second conclusion because loyalty programs, customer lifetime value, and direct marketing are essential values in any retention and development program targeting a company’s most profitable customers. Once again, it is confirmed that the empirical results of the study are in line with those expected, which gives the researchers the necessary security to assume that a good use of CRM can lead to an improvement in the degree of organizational performance and with it the results of the company. Specifically, the use of loyalty programs is presented as the most effective tool for companies in the marketing area, with CRM being the most efficient support available to companies to design such loyalty programs.

Fourth, regarding the key entrepreneurial marketing dimensions for business decision makers, relationship management was identified as the most commonly used marketing dimension, referenced in 38 of the selected articles (44.19% of the total). Commitment, with 15 articles (17.44%), and trust, with 14 articles (16.28%), are less common. Again, these results are consistent with the previous conclusions because relationship marketing, commitment, and trust are the relationship marketing dimensions upon which the concept and working strategy of CRM are based. The findings obtained from the study, referring to the predominant dimensions in the field of marketing, and more specifically in the field of entrepreneurship, confirm that a good management of the information on customers (their needs, tastes, characteristics, priorities, etc.) is essential to business success, and this is achieved most efficiently through the use of CRM systems and strategies. Collecting and managing in a centralized and consistent way the history of interactions with clients, helps to design new and impactful marketing actions aimed at capturing, maintaining, and expanding the partnership with clients.

All these conclusions are aligned with the initial expectations for this scientific research. The review of the highlighted key entrepreneurial marketing dimensions for business decision makers, CRM dimensions and CRM elements shows that the greatest commitment of the joint between CRM and entrepreneurial marketing is to retain and develop relations with the most profitable existing customers. This strategic focus was observed to be much more prominent than the identification, acquisition, and attraction of new customers. Promoting and establishing a culture of customer loyalty and customer lifetime value is crucial to business success. Within this area, customer relationship management is the key marketing factor, along with the development of an environment of trust and cooperation with customers.

In addition to the first objective of identifying and ranking the primary focus in the area of CRM in entrepreneurial marketing, the second objective of this study was to offer suggestions for future research. The findings of this study regarding the quantitative evolution of the selected studies over time lead to recommendations for future studies to further research in this area. Based on the content and key indicators obtained in this study, the areas of customer retention and customer development are those of greatest interest and opportunity for future research. The elements that are most valued in this study and that may provide the fundamental pillars for future research are relationship management, supported by trust and commitment toward customers.

In line with the initial expectations of this study, the most influential papers, authors, and journals in relation to the study of CRM were detected. CRM is a high impact technological solution in entrepreneurial marketing and can have a strong influence on firm performance. In fact, given its powerful link with marketing in the area of entrepreneurship, and as previous studies on the growing influence of CRM among the most relevant Information Technologies within the field of business management show, the growing use of CRM in companies is one of the pillars of technological and social change in Business spirit, which is precisely one of the most obvious consequences of the use of marketing in the area of entrepreneurship and in its commitment to take advantage of unknown opportunities to offer new and better goods and services to society. The transformation power that CRM is exerting on the client's commercial management capacity is being a clear example of how big data can benefit society through a greater and more efficient adaptation of the offer of companies to the needs of customers, which clearly results in customer satisfaction and the overall good of society.

Based on the state of the art, which is jointly illustrated by the bibliometric studies and literature review, the following future research agenda is proposed. The recommendation is to evaluate the current (exploitation) and future (exploration) benefits that make CRM a key tool for achieving a sustainable impact on business performance, and this in coordination with the impact area of entrepreneurial marketing as an unstoppable force for development and transformation of society through its unlimited source of inspiration to find new ways and paths to take advantage of opportunities to satisfy customer needs. It will thus be possible to identify and evaluate the key factors for success from among the paths that lead from CRM and entrepreneurial marketing to firm performance. Once these key factors have been identified and evaluated, a measurement model should be proposed. This model should show the relevant constructs for the use of CRM and entrepreneurial marketing (directly linked to Innovation capabilities) to improve business management. The validity of the model and of the associated hypotheses can then be empirically tested. More specifically, and following the particular findings of the study, it is proposed to analyze which specific entrepreneurial marketing actions are empirically demonstrated as the most effective, aligned with the identified elements (loyalty programs) and the identified dimensions (customer retention), and supported by the dominant dimensions identified (relationship management).

The combination of this review of the literature on CRM as a business management solution in entrepreneurial marketing, together with the bibliometric study of CRM, provides a crucial foundation for subsequent studies of the impact of CRM on firm performance through the use of powerful entrepreneurial marketing strategies. This research enables identification of the most relevant previous studies. Previous conclusions can be used to formulate the most accurate research models. These models can be empirically tested in different sectors or areas of business activity. The main value of this study therefore lies in its review of previous results and conclusions to establish new research models for testing. In the literature review, a gap has been detected regarding the existence of generic models and global empirical studies on the impact of the use of specific CRM components on specific entrepreneurial marketing elements. Consequently, the empirical design and testing of models in concrete and real environments that provide valuable decision criteria to business decision makers is proposed as a line of research.

Finally, the main limitation of this study (but also its greatest virtue) is that it was performed using the Web of Science Core Collection database. This database is one of the most prestigious and complete databases of scientific research publications. Another limitation is that it reviewed high-impact publications for the period 2015 to 2019. This period corresponds to the last five years prior to conducting this study. It also coincides with years of strong growth in interest in research on this subject. Therefore, the study is restricted to the content contained in this database, leading to the possible exclusion of articles that are not recorded in the database. The study is also restricted to this period, even though publications on this topic have also appeared outside this period. Furthermore, the study suffers from a gap left by articles approved for publication in 2019 (appearing as articles published in 2019) but still pending publication at the time this study was conducted.