Using bibliometric analysis to identify and categorize the most used references in customer relationship

Abstract

Many researches have been developed about Customer Relationship Management (CRM) on several areas of knowledge, for instance, on Information Systems, Marketing, Strategy, Psychology and others. This diversity of approaches and perspectives about CRM justifies the need for systematized sources and themes used to build theories, models and frameworks related to CRM. Thus, the objective of this paper is to catalogue and classify the most referenced publications on CRM. To achieve this objective, we conducted a bibliometric analysis on the CRM publications extracted from Web of Science (WoS) database. In this process, we extracted 3974 articles related with CRM. Then, we generated a matrix of cocitations using BibExcel tool. Finally, we analyzed these co-citations performing an exploratory factorial analysis to group these co-citations into factors (categories). We found seven categories for the most used references in CRM publications: (1) tools to develop new models and theory; (2) relationship marketing (with customers and suppliers); (3) antecedents and consequences of service quality, customer satisfaction, customer loyalty and customer perceptions; (4) implications and consequences of market-oriented focus; (5) theoretical conceptualization of customer management relationship and its implication on organizational performance; (6) resource-based view (RBV); and (7) customer value. Through the analysis of the co-citations of CRM publications, we also found that CRM research is deeply grounded on the marketing strategy perspective in which the goal is to acquire and retain customers. Furthermore, CRM strategy can help organizations anticipating marketing demands and building awareness in order to achieve competitive advantage.