An examination of primary stakeholders' opinions in CRM: Convergence and divergence?

The research described in this article attempts to understand the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) interest groups in the context of Stakeholder Theory. It aims to profile current CRM practices and factors that impact on success from the perspectives of users, i.e. firms deploying CRM, consultants and software vendors offering CRM solutions. The findings from 719 responses to an online survey suggest that users', consultants' and suppliers' views do not converge on issues related to CRM objectives, perceived success, causes of failure, effectiveness of CRM tasks and evaluation. The results of this study provide a platform for future research.