The Acquisition And Integration Mechanism Of Banks’ Customer Knowledge Based On Employees’ Motivation

Along with the fast growing economy and deepening reform and market opening, the service industry has been developing rapidly in China market. Meanwhile, a common dilemma banks facing is that their front-line employees have a relatively high turnover rate. The direct and severe outcome resulting from employees leaving is that banks’ customer assets are losing.Thus, the foremost research question our paper addresses is how to motivate first-front client managers effectively to acquire and share more customer knowledge through cultivating and maintaining customer relationships. Obviously, effective motivation can transfer and upgrade the knowledge from employee’s individual level into bank’s organizational level, and then help banks accumulate and retain more knowledge. On one hand, even if employees leave, banks can adopt effective marketing tactics via customer knowledge to avoid their customers’ attrition. On the other hand, even if employees leave, the accumulation of customer knowledge can let their substitutes handle the demands and characteristics of customers and avoid customers’ attrition through providing good service. The next research question is how to transform customer knowledge into organizational performance. Initial knowledge is often diversified, fragmented, unsystematic, and dispersed at different departments or institutes. Thus, the transformation from knowledge into performance is not easy and direct. Banks’ managers should build appropriate structures, processes and culture to purposely and effectively integrate and deploy customer knowledge, and then enhance organizational performance at greater degree. This study not only discusses the acquisition but integration or deployment of customer knowledge. The resolution of acquisition question can help banks identify and find some new paths to acquire knowledge through motivating and managing employees. The transfer of knowledge from individual level into organizational level can upgrade the private relationship of customer and employee into formal business relationship of customer and bank. The resolution of integration can help banks deploy knowledge effectively and efficiently, and this can explain why some banks can develop better by using limited customer resources, and why most other banks can hardly make it.Focusing the acquisition and integration of customer knowledge, this study conducts the following work. Firstly, literature about customer knowledge and its management is reviewed, and the existing gaps are pointed. Based on the review, two kinds of knowledge are identified, i.e., knowledge about customers and knowledge from customers. Secondly, on the basis of studies about human resources (HR) management practices and social capital, this study explains two channels or methods of acquiring customer knowledge, i.e., the formal HR practices, and the informal social capital. Thirdly, according to the inherent characteristics of two kinds of customer knowledge, the study discusses their different performance results, i.e., customer-related performance and new service development. Furthermore, the study explores the transformation mechanism from customer knowledge into performance, i.e., the moderation of customer orientation and innovation orientation. Lastly, via literature review and field studies, the study designs the measurement, implements a survey focusing on senior managers of banks, and then validates the hypotheses.Through the above research work, the conclusions are included as follows. Firstly, customer knowledge is fundamental to build competitive advantages and achieve superior performance. Secondly, different kinds of knowledge result in different performance. In details, knowledge about customers is more beneficial for customer-related performance, while knowledge from customers is more beneficial for new service development. Thirdly, both HR practices and social capital are useful to acquire customer knowledge. However, different methods or paths play different roles. Transaction-based HR practices that emphasize short-term exchange relationships are more useful to motivate and manage employees to acquire knowledge about customers, while commitment-based HR practices that emphasize long-term exchange relationships are more useful to acquire knowledge from customers. Lastly, organizational orientations influence the effectiveness of integrating and deploying customer knowledge. Customer orientation positively moderates the relationship between customer knowledge and customer perfomance, and innovation orientation positively moderates the relationship between customer knowledge and new service development.This study makes the following contributions. Firstly, we discuss knowledge management process from acquisition to integration, which on one hand addresses the gap of researching customer knowledge management by only focusing on a certain limited area, while on the othe hand further enriches researching customer knowledge management in terms of practical contextual recognition of a industry sector. Secondly, the most important contribution of this study is that explores the acquisition of customer knowledge from employees’perspective and enriches theories about customer knowledge management. Thirdly, we analyze and compare the acquisition and integration of two kinds of different knowledge. Fourthly, from the organization-oriented angle, the study explores the contextual factors which may affect the effects of customer knowledge integration, and enhances our understanding about the transformation mechanism from knowledge into performance.