Title: The organisational impact of SaaS adoption on CRM applications

Authors: Cecilia Rossignoli; Lapo Mola; Alessandro Zardini; Francesca Ricciardi

Addresses: Department of Business Administration, University of Verona, Via Cantarane 24, Verona, Italy ' Department of Management of Project, Information Systems and Supply Chains, SKEMA Business School, 60 Rue Dostoievski – Sophia Antipolis, France ' Department of Business Administration, University of Verona, Via Cantarane 24, Verona, Italy ' Department of Business Administration, University of Verona, Via Cantarane 24, Verona, Italy

Abstract: Software as a service (SaaS) approach is a demand-driven application that provides network-based access to an integrated portfolio of applications across the virtual value chain of an enterprise. Therefore, the aim of the present paper is to investigate the organisational technological and economic factors, which influence the adoption of SaaS for customer relationship management (CRM) applications. The theoretical framework refers to transaction cost theory (TCT) and resource-based view (RBV) theory. The research is based on the case study method and analyses four companies of big dimensions, which have adopted the SaaS, approach at least for three years. The results show the importance of some organisational factors such as the optimisations of marketing processes, while other factors such as costs are strongly connected to the reduction of financial risks more than to the costs control in a strict meaning.

Keywords: software as a service; SaaS; outsourcing; customer relationship management; CRM; transaction cost theory; TCT; resource-based view; RBV.

DOI: 10.1504/WREMSD.2017.086310

World Review of Entrepreneurship, Management and Sustainable Development, 2017 Vol.13 No.5/6, pp.593 - 611

Received: 09 Dec 2015
Accepted: 17 Feb 2016
Published online: 04 Sep 2017 *

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