Index of Paper Presentations for the Parallel Sessions - Academy of ...

institutional development. Moreover, they assert that because of its costs and lack of tangible results, ―in countrieswhere there is both low infrastructure development and low marketing institutional development, it is suggested thatCRM strategies not be implemented at this time.‖ (Sharma and Iyer, 2007:73).Although their arguments may conceptually be sound, it is not evidence-based. Also, by suggesting that CRMshould not be implemented in these countries leads one to believe that Sharma and Iyer (2011) are tacitly advocatingthat sales or product focused strategies should be appropriate in such markets. Moreover, another limitation of thisapproach is their restriction to the marketing institutions and thus not incorporating other institutional forces such ascompetitors‘ activities which have been proven in some other studies to determine the CRM approach and success ofcompanies (Kirca, Bearden and Roth, 2011).In a study that focuses on strategies that fit emerging markets, Khanna, Palepu and Sinha (2005:64) assert that CEOsin developed, industrialized markets cannot assume that they can do business the same way in emerging markets―because the quality of the market infrastructure varies from country to country‖. Hence, adaptation to the emergingmarket context is required. However they warn against the use of composite indices such as the GrowthCompetitiveness Index ranking, Business Competitive Index ranking, Governance indicators, Corruption PerceptionIndex, Composite Country Risk points and Weight in Emerging Markets index when developing strategies inemerging markets. Instead, they propose that companies should capitalize on ―institutional voids‖ by applying theirproposed five context framework of (1) socio-cultural systems, (2) openness, (3) product markets, (4) labour marketsand (5) capital markets. It is evident from this study that the institutional context of emerging markets is critical indetermining the success or failure of business strategies.Kumar et al. (2011) studied the global diffusion of CRM technology whilst Shendong and Xue (2011) lookspecifically at CRM effectiveness in the mobile telephony sector of China. More studies on CRM in emergingmarkets have been conducted in Pakistan (Rahman and Azhar; 2008) and Saudi Arabia ( Almotari, 2010).