Building Strong Customer Relationships Through Cross-Business Connections

 

Aligning Customer Relationship Management and IT Strategy With a Networked World

- A Survey and Benchmarking Study -

3. and Final Round

 

Newspapers, trade journals and consultancies proclaim the emergence of the networked enterprise. However, very often it is unclear how a company would benefit from adopting a network structure. Many firms are already struggling today with too much complexity in their supplier and channel relationships. Even within organizations many companies struggle to identify a structure that maximizes performance across product, market and production business-units.

The purpose of this study is to investigate how business units can use IT investments to create value across business relationships.

Selden and Colvin, for example, suggest in a recent Harvard Business Review article that key to M&A success is the acquirer's ability to create value from the target's customer relationships (June 2003, 70-79).

We explicitly study the role of IT infrastructure in the abilities of one business unit (BU) to benefit from another BU's relationships with existing customers or potential buyers.

The study is focused on buyer-seller relationships in business-to-business markets.


Who Is Participating?

 

The survey is targeted at business executives. The questions are answered from the business-unit perspective.

It takes approximately 15 minutes to complete the questionnaire.

So far, our sample includes top-ranked companies in terms of revenue:
6 of the top 20 in communications,
3 of the top 10 in comm. equipment, and technology leaders such as , , and .

Please take the survey:

 

Please (1) download our Microsoft Word file,
(2) save it on your machine,
(3) complete it and save your answers, and
(4) return it either as an email attachment or send it by fax or mail.

It would be helpful to receive your response before Fri., October 17th.

Please do not hesitate to contact us directly if you have any questions.

 

NEW: Donation to Charity

We donate $20 to charity for every usable response. You can chose from a list of three options that we provide. If you do not make a selection we pick the default choice.

Foundation for Children's Oncology Group (default) 1-800-458-6223, www.childrensoncologygroup.org A+
Cancer Research Institute 1-800-992-2623, www.cancerresearch.org A+
American Red Cross 1-800-435-7669, www.redcross.org A

Charity ratings obtained from the American Institute of Philanthropy, http://www.charitywatch.org (accessed 05/21/03).

Why Do Firms Participate?

We distinguish between two different levels of results:

1. Industry-level results will be published in academic journals. These results may be used to:

  • Understand how IT can contribute to different dimensions of value in a business network.

  • Draw upon substantive insights from an industry analysis, which is unbiased, scientifically rigorous using economic theory and sophisticated statistical techniques. 

2. Participant-proprietary results can reveal the relative position of a particular participant within the entire sample while maintaining complete anonymity of the remaining participants. These results may be used to:

  • Take home lessons on IT best practices for your organizations. This survey tries to identify opportunities to create benefits across internal and external relationships. Examples of such benefits are customer satisfaction and cross-selling opportunities. Results could be helpful for business unit leaders to improve organizational structures and for IT executives to leverage IT investments and achieve higher returns from it.

  • Benchmark selective information systems capabilities of your organization. Results can be customized to reveal your position with respect to the survey participants or relevant segments while maintaining anonymity of your all other participants.

 

NEW: First Findings

At this point any findings are preliminary only:

  • Results of investments in systems integration and reach differ in how they enable the creation of business value across relationships--cross-selling, customer satisfaction--through knowledge sharing.
  • Knowledge transfer can be enhanced by designing specific business processes as a conduit.
(Once analysis is completed participants will receive their User ID and Password to access results)

 

Confidentiality

Your responses will be treated with strict confidentiality. Any results reported will be at an aggregate level to protect your and your Business Unit's identity. A checklist approach is used to ensure that potential risks to the confidentiality of the data are considered and addressed.


Survey Administration Details According to University Rules


You may withdraw your consent at any time and discontinue participation without penalty. You are not waiving any legal claims, rights or remedies because of your participation in this research study. If you have questions regarding your rights as a research subject, please contact:


Office of the Vice Provost for Research
University Park Institutional Review Board
Bovard Administration Building, Room 300
Los Angeles, CA 90089-4019
(213) 740-6709 or upirb@usc.edu
Date of preparation: 08/13/2002
Update of approval notice: 04/15/2003
USC UPIRB#02-08-127

 

You are asked to participate in a research study conducted by

Prof. Dr. Chris S. Langdon,
Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California, Los Angeles,

and Prof. Nilesh Saraf,
Florida Atlantic University

Parts of the results of this study will contribute to Nilesh's dissertation study. You were selected as a possible participant in this study because of your knowledge of the topic. Your participation is voluntary. We are asking you to take part in a research study because we are trying to learn more about how marketing and IS strategy benefit your business unit.

Completion and return of the questionnaire or response to the interview questions will constitute consent to participate in this research project.

You will be asked to answer a questionnaire that has taken approx. 15 minutes to answer in our survey tests. You are requested to kindly email it to the project researchers as indicated in the survey. We do not see any foreseeable risks, discomforts or inconveniences to the respondents to this survey. Any information that is obtained in connection with this study and that can be identified with you, will remain confidential and will be disclosed only with your permission or as required by law. When the results of the research are published or discussed in conferences, no information will be included that would reveal your identity. Your e-mailed responses will be maintained in strictly confidentiality in password protected computer accounts. On receipt of your responses, the front page of the survey will be detached from the rest of the survey and filed separately after inserting identifying marks. We do not foresee any need to re-establish contact with the respondents in regard to this survey once it is fully answered.

You can choose whether to be in this study or not. If you volunteer to be in this study, you may withdraw at any time without consequences of any kind. You may also refuse to answer any questions you don't want to answer and still remain in the study. The investigator may withdraw you from this research if circumstances arise which warrant doing so. If you have any questions or concerns about the research, please feel free to contact:

Prof. Dr. Chris S. Langdon
310 594 8466 voice
213.740.7313 fax
clangdon@marshall.usc.edu

Prof. Nilesh Saraf
323 252 9158 voice
nsaraf@fau.edu

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Send mail to christoph.langdon@marshall.usc.edu with questions or comments about this Web site.

Copyright © 1999-2004 Dr. Christoph Schlueter-Langdon

Last modified: March 13, 2007