Book and Website Reviews

After first demonstrating that definitions of customer relationship management (CRM) vary widely, we build upon stakeholder and network theories and argue that there are two fundamental categories of participants in any CRM initiative: (1) “core” stakeholders (i.e., the firm selling its products or services as well as its customers), and (2) various “noncore” stakeholders (e.g., CRM consultants). We then develop a process-based framework and related propositions capturing the various stakeholders involved in a CRM initiative as well as several important mediating and moderating relationships yet to receive attention in the literature. Next, we highlight the specific frame of reference and inherent biases of each type of CRM stakeholder, with particular emphasis on how each attempts to sell its offerings, services, or wares. At the core of our framework is a little-commented-upon mediating construct that we label “Shared Understanding of CRM.” The paper next offers an additional, and perhaps more pragmatic, framework for managers to garner a better understanding of which specific stakeholders are at work in any given CRM initiative, which type of customers might be involved, and which outcome variables or metrics might be salient. The paper’s conclusion offers insights into how the elusive goal of shared understanding of CRM might best be achieved.     

Book Reviews

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Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this article: Psychology in Contemporary China . L.B. Brown Evaluating the Quality of Learning: The SOLO Taxonomy (Structure of the Observed Learning Outcome) . J.B. Biggs and K.F. Collis. The Psychology of Reading and Spelling Disabilities . A.F. Jorm. The Process of Reading: A Cognitive Analysis of Fluent Reading and Learning to Read . D.C. Mitchell. The Psychological Basis of Handwriting Analysis: The Relationship of Handwriting to Personality and Psychopathology . David Lester. Access to Privilege: Patterns of Participation in Australian Post-Secondary Education . D.S. Anderson and A.E. Vervoorn. The Special Child. The Education of Children with Special Needs (3rd ed.). Barbara Furneaux. Sex Equity in Education . Jean Stockard, Patricia A. Schmuck, Ken Kempner, Peg Williams, Sakre K. Edson and Mary Ann Smith. Educating Adolescent Girls . E.M. Chandler. Organizational Effectiveness: A Comparison of Multiple Models . Kim S. Cameron and David A. Whetten (Eds.). The Meaning of Things: Domestic Symbols and the Self . Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and Eugene Rochberg-Halton. Aliens and Alienists . Ethnic Minorities and Psychiatry. Roland Littlewood and Maurice Lipsedge. Basic Processes in Helping Relationships . Thomas A. Wills (Ed.) The Pathogenesis of Alcoholism: Psychosocial Factors . Benjamin Kissin and Henry Begleiter (Eds.). Drug Problems, People Problems . Jara A. Krivanek. Adjustment: The Development and Organization of Human Behavior . R. Douglas Whitman. Caring for Mentally Ill People . Alexander H. Leighton. The Psychotherapeutic Impasse . Myron F. Weiner.