Investigation of Customer Knowledge Management: A Case Study Research

The Customer Knowledge Management

Customer Knowledge Management (CKM) is defined as a process of capture and/or creation, sharing and dissemination, acquisition and application of Customer Knowledge (Dalkir & Liebowitz, 2011) to create value for the organization and its customers (Parirokh, Daneshgar, & Fattahi, 2009). Customer Knowledge is defined as a dynamic and necessary combination of experiences, values, information scenarios, ideas and expertise, which is created and observed in the transaction and exchange processes between the organization and its customers (Blosch, 2000).

Marketing, Sales and Customer Service are the company's primary functions with a high degree of direct customer interaction and knowledge-intensive (Porter, 1985), making them the main targets for the Customer Relationship Management (CRM). The relevant business processes are the campaign management, lead management, offer management, contract management, complaints and service management, and opportunity management (Schmid, 2001).

In the context of CRM, three types of knowledge flows play a critical role in the interaction between the organization and its customers: Knowledge for Customers, Knowledge about Customers and Knowledge from Customers (Gebert, Geib, Kolbe, & Riempp, 2002; Akhavan & Heidari, 2012).