ABSTRACT
A major change agent in companies recently has been the shift from a product-oriented to a customer-focused business strategy. Many companies have invested heavily in technologies enabling a customer-focused relationship marketing strategy. However, firms have had mixed results in implementing customer relationship management systems. The challenge of managing organizational change has been raised as a potential factor affecting the successful outcome of CRM efforts. Our argument is that the proposed relationship between CRM success and organizational change should be made more explicit in order to thoroughly investigate this challenge. The present chapter contributes by presenting the results of an exploratory case study. In the case organization we identified several change events on different observational levels. Our research results show that it is beneficial to apply complementary methods in analyzing organizational change. We have shown that previous research into CRM success has failed to take into account emergent change events, and we suggest that when implementing CRM, a proper risk management procedure would help organizations to prepare better for environmental change events, such as changes in competition and in demand.
