Implementing Social Customer Relationship Management in Turbulent Environments: A Dynamic Capabilities Perspective

Purpose: Despite the crucial contribution of social media on customer relationship management (CRM) strategies, how social CRM can be transformed into customer value, and economics returns for firms remain unexplored in the hospitality industry, especially in turbulent environments. As a new approach for dealing with both gradual and disruptive changes in the market, this study develops and tests the mediating role of dynamic capabilities in the social CRM - performance relationship. Methodology: Drawing on resource-based view and capabilities perspectives, a mixed methodology was applied. First, a survey was conducted to quantitatively test the proposed hypotheses using Structural Equation Modelling with PLS approach (PLS-SEM) on a sample consisting of 111 SEMs. Then, a qualitative fuzzy-set Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) was employed to look for the unique combinations of capabilities to achieve firms‟ superior performance. Findings: The outcomes indicated a mixture of expected and unexpected findings, including: (i) the direct effect of social CRM on firm‟s performance; (ii) Dynamic capabilities as the missing link between social CRM capabilities and firms‟ performance; (iii) the unique roles of social media technology use in the combinations with other capabilities for generating the best firms‟ performance. Originality: This study is among the few to consider the dynamic nature of the market when investigating how to implement Social CRM successfully. The insights and practical implications in this study can be useful for managers in SMEs whose desire is to build a dynamic system for improving customer value and firms‟ performance.