Customer Relationship Management Research from 2007 to 2016: An Academic Literature Review

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to review the literature on customer relationship management (CRM) to analyze the trends in CRM approaches, activities, tools, and implementation from 2007 to 2016. The objective is also to provide a classification of the literature with a comprehensive bibliography. The top 10 marketing journals, on the basis of SCImago rankings, were chosen for the study. A total of 56 research papers with 4633 citations emerged out of these top 10 journals for classification and analysis of different parameters. This research explores how CRM research has evolved over a period of 10 years in terms of key areas, research types, tools used, and most researched areas. It shows that the loyalty program is the most researched and published area with regard to CRM studies, whereas topics like privacy concerns and social CRM are underresearched areas. This article analyzes the CRM published research studies over a period of 10 years to provide topical classification, which can be useful for researchers, academicians, and practitioners to understand how CRM has progressed over the years. Since this article consists of the latest classification and analysis of CRM studies, it can be very meaningful for use in further teaching, research, and application by the industry. Also, none of the published research has reviewed the top 10 marketing journals to review and classify CRM articles. This article presents the first such review and therefore provides the latest classification and analysis of CRM literature.