Abstract:
The purpose of the study was to examine the effect of firm resources and capabilities on
customer retention and Customer Relationship Management implementation success in
Zimbabwe telecom industry. The central focus of this study was to address the following
objectives (a) To investigate relationship between customer defection and CRM adoption (b)
To explore influence of customer defection and company capabilities. (c)To explore
relationship between customer defection and organizational resources and capabilities (d)To
examine impact of organizational resources and capabilities on CRM implementation success.
Recent statistics confirm that demand for CRM software worldwide is exceeding U.S $18
billion and this figure is incessantly increasing. However, empirical studies conducted in
several countries confirm that CRM failure rates especially in telecom firms ranges between
30 per cent to 70 per cent. Ultimately, several firms are disappointed by poor rate of return on
their CRM investments globally. Ideally, CRM initiates should have positive impact on
customer satisfaction, profits, revenue, or customer retention. Data was gathered using case
study design targeting Zimbabwe telecommunication customers, staff, and management.
Structured questionnaires and semi-structured interviews were used to gather data. The study
revealed a positive correlation between ownership of resources, capabilities, and CRM
implementation success. The study revealed that customer switching is rampant in Zimbabwe
mobile telecom industry, and it is a result of CRM implementation challenges. Based on
research results, it can be concluded that Zimbabwe telecommunication firms do not have
sufficient resources and capabilities to roll out CRM programs. Customer defection is partly a
symptom of CRM implementation failure. It is recommended that Zimbabwean
telecommunications operators should adopt infrastructure sharing with other operators in order
to rationalize operational costs, reduce tariffs, boost network coverage and enhance efficiency.
