Social media technology
This study examines how social media technology usage and customer-centricmanagement systems contribute
to a firm-level capability of social customer relationship management (CRM). Drawing from the literature in
marketing, information systems, and strategic management, the first contribution of this study is the conceptualization

and measurement of social CRM capability. The second key contribution is the examination of how
social CRM capability is influenced by both customer-centric management systems and social media technologies.
These two resources are found to have an interactive effect on the formation of a firm-level capability
that is shown to positively relate to customer relationship performance. The study analyzes data from 308
organizations using a structural equation modeling approach.
1. Introduction
Much like marketing managers in the late 1990s through early
2000s, who participated in the widespread deployment of customer
relationship management (CRM) technologies, today’s managers are
charged with integrating nascent technologies – namely, social media
applications – with existing systems and processes to develop new
capabilities that foster stronger relationshipswith customers. Thismerger
of existing CRM systems with socialmedia technology has given way
to a new concept of CRM that incorporates a more collaborative and
network-focused approach to managing customer relationships. The
term social CRM has recently emerged to describe this new way of
developing and maintaining customer relationships (Greenberg,
2010). Marketing scholars have defined social CRM as the integration
of customer-facing activities, including processes, systems, and

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technologies, with emergent social media applications to engage
customers in collaborative conversations and enhance customer relationships
(Greenberg, 2010; Trainor, 2012). Organizations are recognizing
the potential of social CRM and havemade considerable investments
in social CRMtechnology over the past two years. According to Sarner et
al. (2011), spending in social CRM technology increased by more than
40% in 2010 and is expected to exceed $1 billion by 2013.
Despite the current hype surrounding social media applications,
the efficacy of social CRM technology remains largely unknown and
underexplored. Several questions remain unanswered, such as: 1) Can
social CRM increase customer retention and loyalty? 2) How do social
CRM technologies contribute to firm outcomes? 3)What role is played
by CRM processes and technologies? As a result, companies are largely
left to experiment with their social application implementations