Customer Relationship Management and Firm Performance: an Empirical Study of Freight Forwarder Services

This study empirically identifies customer relationship management (CRM) and examines its impacts on firm performance in the context of freight forwarder services. Using data collected from a survey of 144 freight forwarding firms in Taiwan, a structural equation modeling exercise was conducted to identify crucial CRM dimensions and their influences on the perceived financial performance. Results indicated that CRM dimensions such as customer response and profit interaction are found to have significantly positive effects on the perceived financial performance aspects of profit and growth rate. This research not only investigates crucial CRM but also proposes a model for empirical studies to link CRM and firm performance. To the best of our knowledge, this study is one of the first to examine CRM in the freight forwarder services. The model may be used as a stepping stone for empirical research in transportation services on CRM. The understanding of relationships between customer response, information technology, knowledge management application, profit interaction, and organizational performance may provide a clue as to how freight forwarding companies can adjust customer relationship creation processes to sustain their performance.