Voids in the Current CRM Literature: Academic Literature Review and Classification (2000-2005)

The status of the CRM literature is investigated for the period of 2000 to 2005, in order to provide an overview of academic research on the subject and to identify gaps in the current literature. To provide as complete picture of CRM as possible, the information systems (IS) as well as the marketing literature was systematically reviewed. From both disciplines the top journals and a number of international conferences were analyzed. Selected publications were reviewed in a structured way and categorized according to the different phases in the CRM lifecycle: adoption, acquisition, implementation, use & maintenance, evolution and retirement. It appears that less attention has been devoted to implementation issues and to the evolution and retirement phases. Furthermore, a difference in attention was found between the IS and marketing literature: while researchers of the latter focused mainly on the adoption and use phases, IS researchers´ attention was more evenly distributed over the lifecycle