STRATEGIC CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT AND SUSTAINABLE COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE OF SMALL AND MEDIUM-SIZED ENTERPRISES IN OGUN STATE, NIGERIA
Abstract
Small and medium-sized firms are increasingly facing competition not just from their peers, but also from giant corporations operating in specialist areas that were formerly thought to be exclusive to small businesses. Inadequate planning, wrong finance, and bad management have also been identified as the primary causes of SMEs failing, which has a detrimental impact on SMEs' competitive advantage, sales growth, innovativeness and profitability. SMEs in the southern part of Nigeria are constantly confronted with issues such as difficulty managing firm's advertising, lack of adequate marketing research, unawareness of competition, poor branding and packaging, low level of knowledge on business market analysis, poor promotion, poor segmentation strategy, poor pricing technique, and unplanned distribution. This study examined the effect of strategic customer relationship management on performance of small and medium-sized enterprises in Ogun State, Nigeria. The study adopted a survey research design. The population was 2,465 registered small and medium scale enterprises in Ogun State, Nigeria. A sample size of 432 was determined using Cochran formula. Proportionate stratified sampling technique was adopted. A validated questionnaire was used to collect data. Cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficients for the constructs ranged from 0.79 to 0.92. The response rate was 87.9%. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Findings revealed that strategic customer relationship management components had significant effect on sustainable competitive advantage of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in Ogun State, Nigeria (Adj.R2 = 0.764; F (3,407) = 444.412, p < 0.05). The study concluded that strategic customer relationship management had a significant effect on the performance of SMEs in Ogun state, Nigeria. The study recommended that to increase the overall performance of SMEs, owners/managers need to be intentional in adequately adopting customer relationship management strategies with continued value creation so as to continuously record higher growth.
Keywords: Strategic Customer Relationship, Customer Orientation, Customer Centricity, Customer Feedback Mechanism, Sustained Competitive Advantage.
CITATION: Shodunke, O. O., Akpa, V. O. Makinde, O. G., & Nwankwere, I. A. (2022). Strategic customer relationship management and sustainable competitive advantage of small and medium-sized enterprises in Ogun State, Nigeria. The Strategic Journal of Business & Change Management, 9 (2), 915 – 928.
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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.61426/sjbcm.v9i2.2309
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