A Study On The Relationship Between Customer Knowledge Management And Firm Performance

The globalization of competition has completely changed the original boundary ofthe competition, and the firm felt choppy and magnificent of market competition sostrongly. The uncertainty of the external competitive environment requires firm to begood at comprehensive thinking of the development of firm. The customer has becomethe most important assents, customer knowledge management is an effective means ofmanagement, by acquisition, sharing, application and innovation of customer knowledgeto continue to generate revenue for the firm, improve the competitiveness of the firm.This study focuses on the relationship between customer knowledge management andfirm performance, explores in depth the direct and indirect effects mechanism ofcustomer knowledge management on firm performance, testing the intermediary role ofcustomer response capacity. This finding of the study gives a measurement frame to helporganizations to effectively implement customer knowledge management.By literature review, the author obtained that the customer knowledge managementincludes four dimensions (customer knowledge accessing, customer knowledge sharing,customer knowledge applying and customer knowledge innovating), and that customerresponse capacity includes two dimensions of customer response speed and customerresponse expertise. On the basis of balanced score card, the author construct customerknowledge management card, measuring firm performance by four parts (economicbenefits, customer assets, process efficiency, learning and growth) and it forms onedimension. On the basis of the views above, the author presented a theoretical model, andon the basis of drawing on the previous questionnaire, the author designed a newquestionnaire. Then the author carried case interviews for respondents and a wide rangeof sample survey questionnaire. Based on190valid samples, the paper takes an analysison data by using the statistical analysis software SPSS15.0.According to the results, the following conclusions:(1) Different scale, founding years of enterprises, different customer knowledgemanagement level, different industry of firm and different serving customer, partdimensions of customer knowledge management level are different.(2) Customer knowledge management has a great impact on the firm performance,on the other hand, different customer knowledge management dimension has different impact on firm performance.(3) Customer knowledge management has a great impact on customer responsecapacity, on the other hand, different customer knowledge management dimension hasdifferent impact on customer response capacity. Thereinto, customer knowledgeaccessing, customer knowledge sharing, customer knowledge applying have a significantimpact on customer response capacity, but customer knowledge innovating has not asignificant impact on customer response capacity.(4) Customer response capacity has a significant impact on firm performance anddifferent customer response capacity dimension has different impact on firmperformance.(5) Customer response capacity plays an intermediary role between customerknowledge management and firm performance. In details, the relationship betweencustomer knowledge sharing and firm performance is fully mediated by customerresponse capacity, and customer response capacity is a partial mediator betweencustomer knowledge accessing, customer knowledge applying and firm performance, themediating effect of customer knowledge innovating does not exist.In response to the findings, the authors propose the following recommendations,first, the leader should attach great importance to customer knowledge management atthe strategic level, and also should attach importance to the cultivation of customerresponsiveness, and pay attention to the coordinate between customer knowledge and thecustomer capacity. On the basis of actual condition, the enterprises should carry outknowledge management systematically and comprehensively, and create new corporateenvironment, and reinforce the support of information technology, increase capital tosupport information technology platform and introduce talent actively, carry out customerknowledge management by an effective means.This paper reviews of abundant literature, and construct a model of customerknowledge management. By the empirical analysis, this study discusses the relationshipbetween customer knowledge management and firm performance in depth. Researchresults will help enterprises to carry out the implementation of customer knowledgemanagement, and to provide a theoretical guide.