Title: Understanding electronic social customer relationship management: foundations and current major themes

Authors: Efthymios Constantinides; Arsham Yousif; Sjoerd De Vries

Addresses: Faculty of Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences, University of Twente, P.O. Box 217, 7500 AE, Enschede (NL), The Netherlands ' Accenture Netherlands, Gustav Mahlerplein 9082 MA, Amsterdam (NL), The Netherlands ' Faculty of Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences, University of Twente, P.O. Box 217, 7500 AE, Enschede (NL), The Netherlands

Abstract: Empowered customers, global competition and a persistent financial crisis are important reasons driving businesses to new approaches for building and maintaining competitive advantages. Breaking away from the past focus on internal sources of competitive advantage strategists are switching attention to external factors and superior customer value creation. In this line building long-lasting and mutually rewarding relationships with customers is the key. The emerging paradigm of Electronic Social Customer Relationship Management (or ESCRM) can be the key for bolstering customer value by enabling customer engagement. This paper, based on an extensive literature review and interviews with 25 experts and thought leaders in electronic social CRM, aims at defining the electronic social CRM and its potential value for businesses as well as identifying main issues for further research.

Keywords: ESCRM; customer relationship management; customer value; customer strategy; customer-centric; electronic CRM; social CRM; e-CRM; social media; customer engagement.

DOI: 10.1504/IJECRM.2014.067509

International Journal of Electronic Customer Relationship Management, 2014 Vol.8 No.4, pp.180 - 199

Accepted: 14 Dec 2014
Published online: 29 Apr 2015 *

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