The role of human, organization and technology in building competitive advantage with CRM: The case of Iranian internet service industry

With the market shift toward a customer focused behavior, many companies have invested huge amounts in customer relationship management (CRM) technology and many of these investments have remained with little payback. Meanwhile other studies have shown the positive impact of customer orientation on firm performance. While many companies view CRM as an information technology (IT) solution, literature shows that IT in itself can not be held responsible for the ultimate success or failure of the business strategy. After classifying CRM resources as ldquotechnological CRM resourcesrdquo, ldquohuman CRM resourcesrdquo and ldquoOrganizational CRM resourcesldquo and based on resource-based view (RBV) of the firm, this study examines the relationship between CRM resources and CRM process capabilities and links it to performance. The results of the empirical study revealed that companies which have deployed the CRM resources more, have better process capabilities and also better financial performance.