IMPACT OF CLIENT RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT ON THE PERFORMANCE OF ARCHITECTURAL FIRMS IN NIGERIA
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Date
2022
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Abstract
Previous studies that established that superior financial and non-financial performance
outcomes result from the use of customer relationship management features were
contextualised outside Nigeria and the architectural industry. To achieve the financial and
non-financial prosperity of businesses and contribute to the sustainable development goals
(SDGs), there has been a paradigm shift by companies across the globe toward customer
relationship management. The customers of architectural firms are called ‘clients,’ and
studies that holistically described the client relationship management (CRM) features used
by architectural firms and how they influence firm performance are unknown. This study
filled this gap by investigating the impact of CRM features used by architectural firms in
Nigeria on their firm performance. The mixed-method research paradigm was adopted and
a mix of a validated questionnaire and an interview guide were administered to principals
of architectural firms across the six geo-political zones of Nigeria. The sampling frame
comprising 780 architectural firms was drawn from 1,066 registered architectural firms
listed by the Architects Registration Council of Nigeria (ARCON). Multistage cluster
sampling and multistage random sampling were used to extract a representative sample size
of 290 firms as respondents of the quantitative data instrument while purposive sampling
was used in selecting participants for the interviews. The statistical tools used to analyse
the quantitative data from the retrieved 202 copies of the questionnaire were descriptive
statistics, cross-tabulation, principal component analysis and categorical regression
analysis. Qualitative data were analysed using thematic analysis. The study found that
individualised incentives strategy had the strongest impact on firm performance in Nigeria
(β = 0.42, p < 0.01). Also, office location is the strongest driver of individualised incentives
strategy (β = 0.21, p = 0.02). For parsimonious reasons, this study cross-sectionally
investigated CRM (a longitudinal phenomenon) as done by previous studies. This is a
limitation of the study and it implied that interpretations of results from the study were
reported tentatively as they would need to be corroborated with further longitudinal studies.
The study also recommends that principals and managers of architectural firms in Nigeria
upgrade their skills in implementing location-sensitive individualised incentives strategy as
a priority CRM feature to achieve superior performance of their firms.