This paper examines empirically the role of business intelligence (BI) in customer relationship management (CRM). Drawing on relevant literature on BI and CRM, the research model for the current investigation proposes that BI approaches of an organisation and its competition influence organisational business strategy which in turn impacts its customer strategy. The model is tested empirically using survey data of 165 respondents from 73 different private and state owned businesses operating in a transitional economy of East Europe. Empirical evidence confirms a key role of BI in CRM through its impact on organisational business and customer strategies development. Such findings make two important contributions. For research, they provide an improved understanding of the factors and processes involved in realising benefits from BI. For practice, they show managers how BI can be leveraged to achieve performance gains through competitive actions. Further research is recommended to confirm and extend the current investigation.

This empirical study was carried out to investigate the impact of ICT-based knowledge management systems (KMS) of varying sophistication on decision support in varying decision contexts. The results indicate that the positive impact of KMS sophistication was limited to simple decision contexts only. In simple contexts, the availability of more sophisticated KMS led to more intensive balanced use of the available functions and features which resulted in improved decision quality, confidence and satisfaction. In contrast, greater KMS sophistication made no difference to system usage behaviour and decision performance in complex contexts. Such findings provide much needed empirical support for the proper fit between technology-orientated decision aids and simple decision contexts. Future research is needed to determine suitable solutions for complex contexts.