The impact of social capital on customer relationship management performance in the Egyptian financial sector

Mohamed, Elsayed Sobhy Ahmed

Abstract

Nowadays social relationships between service providers and customers are vital for their long term customer relationship management (CRM). Several scholars also believe that poor results of CRM initiatives are due to an extensive focus on technological aspects as an antecedent of CRM rather than social capital dimensions. Despite social capital and CRM concepts have attracted both academics and practitioners; the link between these two concepts is under-researched. Thus, this study examines the effect of social capital on CRM through mediating organisational perceived values.

The exhaustive literature review on social capital dimensions, organisational perceived values and CRM performance leads to the development of a conceptual framework and formulation hypotheses. The proposed framework and hypotheses were empirically assessed through a positivist methodological approach: survey study and quantitative data modelling techniques. The survey study was administrated to CRM managers of 201 Egyptian financial service institutions (e.g. banks, insurance companies and brokerage firms) using a drop & collect method. The usable response rate of 96.6 per cent was tested for non- response bias. The data analysis focused on exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, structural equation modelling and regression models which statistically validated the proposed research model.

Results of goodness of fit and statistical indices established validity and reliability of this study. The results confirmed three social capital dimensions (e.g. structural, cognitive and relational) and their antecedents. The findings also proved a significant and positive link between social capital and CRM performance (e.g. loyalty and retention) through the mediating roles of organisational perceived values (e.g. customer satisfaction and customer commitment). Therefore, the proposed conceptual framework was validated. Thus, sixteen hypotheses were supported while only one was refuted.

This study makes three main contributions: First, it remedies deficiencies in the existing social capital literature and develops an integrated model of social capital. Second, it develops and tests a comprehensive framework that integrates social capital with CRM performance in the financial service sector. Third, it brought in a new significant strategy for financial service institutions managers to improve customer-organisation relationships. It introduced social capital as an antecedent for an effective CRM performance. The implications and practice are considered in the light of the results of this study. Several limitations of the methodology are addressed and ideas for further research put forward.

Citation

Mohamed, E. S. A. (2011). The impact of social capital on customer relationship management performance in the Egyptian financial sector. (Thesis). University of Hull. Retrieved from https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/4211887

• Thesis Type: Thesis
• Deposit Date: Feb 28, 2012
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 22, 2023
• Keywords: Business
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/4211887
• Additional Information: Business School, The University of Hull
• Award Date: May 1, 2011