Future of Customer Relationship Marketing: New Directions for Research

In Chapter 11, we discuss several important research directions that are promising as a result of big data revolution, availability of computing power, and emerging models of estimating customer lifetime value (CLV), both transaction/engagement-based B2C activities. We also discuss some unintended consequences (dark side) of customer–brand relationships including forms of dis-identification and privacy related issues. In particular, we provide a discussion on the role of ethics in general, and normative ethics in particular, in building customer relationship marketing (CRM). Finally, we provide a brief discussion on some challenges and research opportunities facing B2B relationship marketing. At the end of the chapter, we provide key takeaways and conclude with discussion questions and HBS and Ivey cases. But first, to give a flavor of CRM and future research trends, we provide some real-life vignettes.