Dissertation on CRM, Information Systems, and Retailing Industry

This dissertation investigates the effectiveness of Information Systems (IS) and Database Management (DBM) in the UK retailing industry to develop Customer Relationship Management (CRM). It explores the importance of IS and DBM in providing superior service, consistent customer experience, and their impact on customer satisfaction and loyalty. The research employs an inductive approach with qualitative and quantitative methodologies, using primary and secondary data collection methods. The study utilizes thematic and descriptive analysis to analyze the collected data. The findings emphasize the benefits of IS in managing customer information and recommend maintaining data integrity, confidentiality, and security to enhance CRM and information management. The dissertation includes an introduction, literature review, research methodology, data analysis, and conclusion, offering valuable insights for retail organizations seeking to improve customer relationships and achieve competitive advantages. The research also provides recommendations for future investigations in this field.

Dissertation
On
“The Effectiveness of Information Systems and Database
Management in retailing industry to develop Customer
Relationship Management”
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ABSTRACT
Customer relationship management is a system that is used by corporate entities to
manage and assess the customer interactions and data to know the customer behaviour towards
business. Business entities have to design their information system for correctively access the
information of customers that could further support the CRM system
Aim: The major aim of present investigation is to assess the effectiveness of Information Systems
and Database Management in retailing industry to develop customer relationship management.
Objectives : The objectives of business are : to explore the effectiveness of information systems
and database management in developing customer relationship management, to assess the
importance of information systems and database management for providing superior service and
consistent customer experience. To identify the impact of customer relationship management on
customer satisfaction and customers loyalty and to recommend the ways to improve customer
relationship within retailing industry of UK
Research Methodology: To attain the objectives of present investigation inductive approach as
well as qualitative and quantitative research types is used. Both primary and secondary methods
of data collection will be used for current study. Thematic analyses along with descriptive
analysis are used as data analyse tactics.
Conclusion : Information systems used within retail firm are beneficial in terms of managing
information of customers in safe and secure manner so as to maintaining long lasting relating
and ongoing business from them.
Recommendation: The UK retailing organizations should maintain integrity, confidentiality and
database security techniques in order to enhance security of CRM and information management
system.
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Acknowledgement
I would like to extend my sincere regards to my mentor whom guided was helpful for me to
complete the investigation is the most effective manner. I would happy to say that discussion
sessions with my supervisor was always inspiring and illuminating for me. I present my gratitude
to my supervisor who encouraged me to conduct dissertation. Further, I would also like to thank
my family and friends who have been a strong moral support all through this research process.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION....................................................................................................6
1.1 Background............................................................................................................................6
1.2 Rationale of the study............................................................................................................6
1.3 Potential significance of study...............................................................................................7
1.4 Scope of investigation............................................................................................................8
1.5 Research aim and objectives..................................................................................................8
1.6 Research questions.................................................................................................................9
1.7 Structure of dissertation.........................................................................................................9
CHAPTER 2- LITERATURE REVIEW.......................................................................................11
2.1 Understanding of information systems and database management.....................................11
2.2 Importance of information systems and database management for organizations..............12
2.3 Concept of Customer Relationship Management................................................................14
2.4 Role of information systems and database management in developing Customer
Relationship Management.........................................................................................................15
2.5 Customer Relationship Management in the UK retail industry...........................................18
2.6 Impact of customer relationship management on customer satisfaction and customers
loyalty........................................................................................................................................20
2.7 Conclusion...........................................................................................................................22
CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY...........................................................................23
3.1 Research philosophy............................................................................................................23
3.2 Research approach...............................................................................................................23
3.3 Research type.......................................................................................................................24
3.4 Research design...................................................................................................................25
3.5 Data Collection....................................................................................................................25
3.6 Research instruments...........................................................................................................26
3.7 Sampling..............................................................................................................................27
3.8 Data Analysis.......................................................................................................................27
3.9 Ethical issues........................................................................................................................28
3.10 Limitations.........................................................................................................................29
CHAPTER 4- DATA ANALYSIS................................................................................................30
4.1 Introduction..........................................................................................................................30
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4.2 Questionnaire statistics........................................................................................................30
4.3 Statistical analysis................................................................................................................31
4.4 Summary of statistical analysis............................................................................................36
4.5 Thematic Analysis...............................................................................................................36
4.6 Summary of Thematic Analysis..........................................................................................43
4.7 Summary..............................................................................................................................43
CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION......................................................................................................44
5.1 Introduction..........................................................................................................................44
5.2 Conclusion of secondary investigation................................................................................44
5.3 Conclusion of primary investigation....................................................................................46
5.4 Recommendation.................................................................................................................46
5.5 Recommendation of further investigation...........................................................................47
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................48
APPENDIX....................................................................................................................................52
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Title
“The Effectiveness of Information Systems and Database Management in retailing industry to
develop Customer Relationship Management”
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background
In present era, the leading competition and continuous change lead to thumping
challenge as well as mammoth opportunity for retailers. The importance of retailing sector is
witnessed as an important part of economic structure as well as individual’s days to day life. The
selling of goods has been seen as a propionate activity of today's retaining sector (Younes, 2013).
In present environment retailing is evolving into a global and high tech business. The retailing
business is seen as the largest private sector in all around the world. The retailing entity is aimed
at developing a long lasting relationship with the customers so they can be retained in the
organization and can provide ongoing business to the company. Customer relationship
management is a system that is used by company is to manage and assess the customer
interactions and data to know the customer behaviour towards business (Molan, 2012). The
major aim of an organization's information system is to improving business relationships with
customers and achieving customer retention and revenue growth. Business entities have to
design their system for correctively access the information of customers that could further
support the CRM systems, therefore, the applicability and effectiveness of information systems
and database management is required (Shainesh and Parvatiyar, 2001). The information is to be
storage, retrieve and update of data in a computer system therefore a system is used namely
database management.
1.2 Rationale of the study
The major motive behind conducting present investigation is to identify the
effectiveness of Information Systems and database management in retailing industry to develop
customer relationship management. Nonetheless, the interest of researcher in the field of
management especially customer relationship. It has been witnessed that the retail organizations
of UK are operating in competitive business environment (Ziliani and Ieva, 2015). The major
rationale behind conducting this present investigation is to deal with the aspect of customer
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relationship management. It has been witnessed that the information gathered by the entity in
respect with the customers is useful in making future strategy but it has been not evaluated that
how business could get use of information systems and database management in retailing
industry s to develop long lasting customer relations.
The foremost aim of companies is to assess the information that will be helpful in
maintain long lasting relation with the customers. In the retailing industry of UK, customers
retention is the major problem that could be resolved through developing good relation which
could lead to increase business (Younes, 2013). To support this decision, the company has to
know everything about its customers which could be done through developing effective
information system. The customers can be satisfied through providing good services that are
expected by them. Customer relationship management is a new aspect and the identification of
effectiveness of information system and database management for managing an effective
customer relationship system is the major motivation of this study.
1.3 Potential significance of study
The investigation herewith purposes at assessing the effectiveness of information systems
and database management in retailing industry s to develop Customer Relationship Management.
The significance of this investigation is to be seen in the manner of assessing the initiatives of
company in developing effective relation with customers while representing the importance of
information management and database management system. The study is useful for managers to
identify the effectiveness of information management system to develop effective customer
relationship management system. In addition to that the importance of this investigation is for
industry leaders and academic students (Li and Frömlohner, 2005). From this investigation, the
student can identify the importance of customer’s relationship management for an organization.
The relevance of information regarding customers can be identified through the present
investigation. The investigation is important as it reders information regarding numerous
initiatives to collect the information and managing data base as well as its importance in
developing customers relationship management.
The positive implications of this study can be seen in the form of customer’s loyalty.
Through effective management of database and information system company can store the
information related to costumes that will be helpful in providing effective service to them or
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making then satisfied, hence customer loyalty of business will increase. Effective information
system and data base management will be helpful in identifying and store information in regard
to customers (Uyen and Teresa, 2013). Nonetheless, the findings of present investigation will be
helpful in finding out the ways to improve customer satisfaction in retailing industry and will
also help business in achieving competitive advantages through making good and impressive
relations with customers (E- CRM, 2000).
1.4 Scope of investigation
The importance of Customer relationship management is seen throughout the industries
but there were not fine research have done to the preset topic. It was difficult to find out the
literature review for the present investigation hence, the unavailability of fine research can be
considered as the gap of preset investigation. The scope of present investigation to fill the gap
by conducting a study on the effectiveness of Information Systems and database management at
Retailing industry s to develop customer relationship management.
The second gap that is identified in literature review is that there were little research have
been conducted in regard to the application of CRM and information system in retaining industry
and this gap is going to be filled through conducting this study on UK retailing industry . This
investigation is significant for retailing industry as well as research scholars and different
organizations. Along with this, it will be helpful for the organizations operating in retail sector of
UK.
1.5 Research aim and objectives
Aim
The major aim of present investigation is to assess the effectiveness of Information
Systems and Database Management at retailing industry to develop customer relationship
management.
Objectives
The points below represent the major objective of the proposed investigation herewith:
 To explore the effectiveness of information systems and database management in
developing customer relationship management
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 To assess the importance of information systems and database management for providing
superior service and consistent customer experience
 To identify the impact of customer relationship management on customer satisfaction and
customers loyalty
 To recommend the ways to improve customer relationship within retailing industry of
UK
1.6 Research questions
1. How effective the information system of Retailing industry in obtaining, storing and
using customers related information?
2. What is the significant impact of customer relationship management on customer
satisfaction and customer’s loyalty?
3. What are the ways to improve customer relationship within retailing industry of UK?
1.7 Structure of dissertation
Chapter 1: Introduction: Introduction is the first chapter of this dissertation that
explains the major problem of the study as well as the aim and objective of this dissertation. This
chapter is helpful in creating the background of investigation and the problem that is selected. In
addition to that the rationale behind conducting this investigation and potential significance are
presented. However, the research questions designed for the investigation are prepared.
Chapter 2: Literature review: The next in line chapter is literature review that is the
most crucial part of investigation which involves source of secondary data. The secondary
information is collected from articles, books and journals which were written on the usefulness
of information systems and database management in developing customer relationship
management. This chapter also represents the information that is collected from online and
physical library. The information is collected from articles written on customer’s relationship
management activities of business. The LR section presents the sub-themes that are designed to
answer the research questions.
Chapter 3: Research Methodology: This chapter represents the research methodology
that has been adopted to reach the objectives of present investigation. To attain the objectives of
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present investigation inductive approach as well as qualitative and quantitative research types are
used. Both primary and secondary methods of data collection will be used for current study. The
database referred for the same will include emerald insight, Google scholar etc. Studies will be
searched on information system, database management as well as customer relationship
management.
Chapter 4: Data Analysis: The data collected for the present investigation are of
quantitative nature that will be analyzed through using thematic analysis along with graphical
presentation. Along with this, descriptive analysis is used that will be helpful in presenting the
finding. The themes will be prepared on the basis of respondents’ views and research objectives.
In this respect, MS excel tools are going to be used for data analysis.
Chapter 5: Conclusion and Recommendations: This present research is going to
discuss the crux of the entire investigation while providing effective recommendations that are
drawn after data analysis.
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CHAPTER 2- LITERATURE REVIEW
Literature review is the most crucial aspect of an investigation that involves the use of
secondary data to collect the wide range of information pertaining to research topic. The present
section deals with the studies that have been conducted by various authors in regard to the topic
of customer’s relationship management and the use of information system and database
management. In order to collect the secondary data for preparing this literature review, various
studies conducted by business are going to be studies. For this various secondary sources are
analysed such as books, journals as well as online articles and blogs. In other words, the findings
of other studies have been presented in this section. The entire literature review is presented with
specific sub headings so that the information can be clearly pass on the readers. The literature
review section herewith clearly defines the information systems and database management as
well as importance of information systems and database management for gathering and storing
specific information. Furthermore, the concept of Customer Relationship Management is going
to be explained along with its impact on customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. The major
part of this literature review represents the role of information systems and database management
in developing Customer Relationship Management.
2.1 Understanding of information systems and database management
Information system is referred to software that is used to organize and analyse data (What
Are Information Systems? - Definition & Types. 2015). This system is used to resolve the
problems that are relating to an organization and helps in attaining the mission of an
organization. According to Vanitha (2012) all the big organizations work with large amounts of
information that includes basic values or facts that can be organized in a database. The
information system includes the data that has been organized and is helpful in answering the
questions for resolving business problems (Vanitha, 2012). To the view point of Alsultanny
(2010) major purpose of an information system is to translate the raw data into useful and
meaningful information so that an effective decision making can be done for an organization.
Nonetheless, there are two different kinds of information system such as general and specified
information system (Alsultanny, 2010). The system that is designed for general data analysis and
organize is known as general information system. These types of system include data base
management system and electronic spreadsheet. DBMS software is not designed to work with a
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specific organization or a particular type of analysis, on the other hand, electronic spreadsheet is
a tool that can be used for conducting basic data analysis using formulas.
In the investigation conducted by Uyen and Teresa (2013) some specialized information
systems have been defined as the information system that have been specifically designed to
analyse the specific information for caring out solutions for specific problems. As an illustration
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is an information system that is designed for a specific
purpose. This information system is used for making an integration between internal and external
information within a company (Uyen and Teresa, 2013). On the other hand, Geographic
Information System (GIS) is a specific information system that is used for managing and
analysing geographical data.
Data base management is a type of general information systems which is also known as
DBMS. This information system is a combined from of software and data that allows
organization to effectively organize and analyse the data. However, it has been witnessed that the
DBMS software is not designed to work with a specific organization or a particular type of
analysis thus; it is an information system that is designed for general purpose. To the view point
of (Felix, 2015) Data base management system allows users to create, edit and update the
information at various points of time. Using a DBMS organization can store and retrieve data
that will be based on concurrent access meaning different departments can use same database at
the same time. The other functions of Database management include security, Backup and
recovery, Integrity and Data descriptions.
2.2 Importance of information systems and database management for organizations
To the view point of Kent and Dennis (2015) information system effectiveness is
described as efficiency of a system in terms of collecting, storing and distributing information to
the various parts of departments. In other words, it could be said as system from where business
could get the information that is significant for decision making (Kent and Dennis,2015). For
the organization the importance of information system and data base management is seen in the
form for making effective decisions. In the words of Grugulis and Bozkurt (2011) it has been
witnessed that the decisions are based on information that is processed through such systems
(Grugulis and Bozkurt, 2011). According to an investigation made by Hellriegel, Jackson and
Slocum (2001) the managers of big organization spend more than 80% of their time for
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