1. INTRODUCTION:

One of those basic concepts which is gaining prominence in the world of Globalization is the ongoing customer-care management. In the Retail sector context, Customer care does not only include to gain basic customer information by using customer relationship management (CRM) practices but to gain valuable knowledge from the changing customer product attitude and purchase behaviour. This type of knowledge is mainly based on customer product experiences and employee-customer encounter experiences. The Retail organizations which are interviewed know that through Customer Integration Management practices and implementation of their experiences ,the supply chain can be optimized and resulting customer complaints and non-productive costs can be avoided. There are different possibilities to integrate the customer along the product development process.

According to the interviewees it definitely makes sense to involve the customer into the process of idea generation and product rating. Receiving knowledge from the customer implies providing organizational knowledge, including e.g. detailed product information or information about New product developments, and Availability of Merchandise for the customer. When the Customer is informed about the New product development and Availability of Product variety, he can provide valuable input for future product development and design. To provide New product development information for the customer, it requires a degree of trust and Relationship management, since there is no guarantee that all the customers are loyal and trustworthy with the same Organization.

2. LITERATURE REVIEW AND RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS:

Organization’s integration with customers refers to the mechanism whereby they work closely with customers and viewing the latter as an important component of supply chain Integration. (Narasimhan and Kim, 2002). In this article, this variable also encompasses the degree of involvement, Relationship and Influence customers have in facilitating Customer Integration. It also measures how closely customers work with replace to seal a deal (Narasimhan and Kim, 2002). The Regular Follow-up with customers for feedback refers to the degree of correspondence between replace and customers, whereby customers respond to the replace regarding the output delivered or to be delivered to customers (Narasimhan and Kim, 2002).

Customer integration leads to special challenges for the planning, control and monitoring of in-house processes, thus creating the necessity for using customer controlling measures (Kleinaltenkamp and Schweikart, 2006). From a controlling perspective, customer integration is therefore often perceived as a cost accounting problem and as a result has negative connotations (Kleinaltemkamp and Schweikart, 2006). Therefore, it is important to create the awareness that customer integration supported by customer controlling leads to an increase in service productivity. The prime strategies for enhancing organizational competitiveness have a common assumption that current organizational dynamics pressurize organizations to know how to deal with the complexity and the future challenges that characterize the ever changing global markets (Ulrich, 1998). One of the approaches promoting competitiveness is to analyze Organization’s resources and to manage them with a strategic plan. This is the main premise of the RBV (Resource Based View) (Barney, 1991) of the firm frame. The Barney’s RBV is an economic theory holding that organizations can earn sustainable returns if their superior resources are protected by appropriate mechanisms preventing their diffusion in Global markets. It strongly suggests that it’s the resources by which a firm gains competitive advantages. The human resources were reasoned as a target of attention by management, viewing them as a strategic pathway of response to promote Organization competitiveness (Prahalad, C and Hamel G, 1990)

Research Hypothesis

Ho1: C.R.M Strategies will have no significant positive effect on Customer Integration

Ha1: C.R.M Strategies will have significant positive effect on Customer Integration

Ho2: Customer Integration strategies will have no significant positive effect on Organization Competitiveness

Ha2: Customer Integration strategies will have significant positive effect on Organization Competitiveness

2.1 Customer Relationship Management (C.R.M):

In the present Research paper we assume that Customer relationship management is identified as the core competency and a major competitive advantage for Organization in terms of Customer Integration. There is considerable attempt to introduce Knowledge management concepts, systems, and tools into the organization’s Integration practices to facilitate Customer relationship management competency, as well as supporting processes or competencies in order to substantially improve Organization competitiveness. The concepts and fundamentals of Customer relationship management grew from demand on after-sales customer service. In addition, it is based on sales transactions, encounter with Customer expectations and intensive Customer data mining. In the process of influence of Relationship Management and Customer orientation principles, customer relationship management advances to adoption of value-added problem solving and Customer centric services. The ultimate Customer relationship management principle is to build customer loyalty, win the Trust, Confidence and maintain lifetime patronization performing to the expectations of Customers. The following are the Core competencies of Customer relationship management and three levels of Customer relationship management in terms of their short v. long-term effects, and functional applications:

a) transaction-based data processing;

b) value added customized product and services; and

c) knowledge-based customer and value driven relationship building.

The Modern markets are spread across the Globe and Customer Relationship in the context of Transaction – based data processing is a challenge for Organizations. The role of Information Technology is vital in maintaining Transaction based Data maintenance across the Globe. The Customer in the present Dynamic Markets demands value addition and customized products matching his Tastes and preferences . Therefore it is a challenge for Organizations to study, analyze the changing Tastes and preferences of Customers who are spread across the Globe. With the evolution of Internet and Communication Technologies, the present day Customer is knowledge based and he/she is pre-occupied with product information through various social networks, websites, References, promotion media etc. The Customer today expects Value driven relationship in whatever he/she purchases and always compares his product with competitors in various ways.

Table 1:Customer Relationship Management Levels:

S.No	First Level	Second Level	Third Level
1	Communication skills	First Level Skills	First and Second Level
2	Selling Skills	Customer Marketing Research	Customer Capital
3	Understanding Customer Needs and Wants	Innovation and Creativity	Customer Loyalty
4	Customer Grievance Handling	Analytical skills	Customer Life-time value
5	Data Mining Skills	Inter-personal skills	Knowledge Management

In the ever changing Globalized markets, all Organizations are striving for implementing Customer Relationship Management strategies and further wish to upgrade to various levels which may be drawn from strategic review of core competencies. Each level of Customer relationship management requires different competencies i.e. knowledge, skill and Talent. The first level requires core competency in communication skills, selling skills, understanding of customer needs and wants, real-time customer data access, customer grievance handling skills, and data mining skills etc. The Second Level skills include anticipating customer needs and wants from extrapolated information and Marketing Research, customization skills with given cost budget, innovation and creativity, problem-solving skills, analytical skills, interpersonal communication skills, and all the skills from First Level. The Third Level covers measuring and managing Customer capital, Customer loyalty and customer lifetime value, customer driven process management, skills in relationship building, best practices in customer service, collaboration, effective learning and knowledge transfer etc., and all the skills from First and Second Levels of Customer Relationship Management (C.R.M)

2.1.1 Strengthening CRM Supporting processes and competencies at Three Levels:

To make Customer Relationship Management effective in practice, supporting processes must also be strengthened simultaneously. The various Supporting processes and competencies include Product research and development, Production management, Supply chain management, Supplier Relationship Management and Customer Integration. Competency development must therefore comply with supporting processes in the specified areas. Apart from the functional skills and domain knowledge expertise, other supporting competencies include problem solving capacity, interpersonal communication, leadership, team work, analytical thinking, Trouble shooting, conceptual thinking, strategic orientation, time management, Total quality management, quality circles, management by objectives (M.B.O) and project management etc. Organizations needs to focus on increasing the Customer base and Customer lifetime value by calculating average sales per customer, average profit per customer and the frequency of continuous purchase and the duration of Customer relationship management. The Customer Loyalty index which includes Customer retention, Customer referral programs, Customer Satisfaction index and Customer attrition rate may be taken into consideration while designing appropriate levels of Customer Relationship Strategies to be implemented in Organizations. To make Customer Integration strategies effective, Customer Service which includes Contact Frequency, response time and number of service activities between sales needs to be efficient and effort should be made to reach the Customer Expectations.

2.1.2 Integration of knowledge management system (K.M.S) and customer relationship management system (C.R.M):

The integration of knowledge management and customer relationship management must be looked at in several crucial areas. The first step should initiate strategic planning process which includes knowledge audit and knowledge map that would act as a reference in development of knowledge management to support customer relationship management. This includes people (individual competency), process (structural capital and intangible assets),Technology(I.T), Content (explicit knowledge),and Communication(Internal and External).In the second step, the various knowledge management sub-systems must be evaluated and then applied when appropriate to the Customer relationship management system in the effort to upgrade to level three of Customer relationship management. The third step, as part of the support for the integration of knowledge management system and customer relationship management system, the supporting processes of customer relationship management must also be strengthened or upgraded in order for the entire system to be effective and conducive to respond to the dynamic ever changing Global markets. The fourth Step focus is on knowledge-based customer relationship management, since it is intensive and highly dependent on talented human resource. Hence one of the crucial supporting functions of the integration is competency development, and this function is usually charged to the responsibility of human resource management to give requisite training to the Staff and mould them as per the environment. In the final step, Organizations must be monitored for performance against expectation or goal for any newly implemented system. Hence it is pre-requisite that Organizations must also redesign the performance management system that includes various metrics to fit the new strategic planning and implementation. The integration takes the form of a strategic change program comprising of various execution projects in given timeframe, and it is a challenge for the Organizations to overcome Resistance to change during implementation of the new systems and procedures.

2.2 Customer Integration:

An increase in Organization productivity can be achieved through a systematic integration of the Customer into product development and service delivery process. As a systematic process, the Customer Integration needs to be consolidated by Knowledge Management (KM) and Optimization process in the Organization. Therefore the Customer Integration into the whole product life–cycle is vital for Organization productivity and competitiveness (Frohlich, M.T. and Westbrook, R., 2001). The important Customer Integration Instruments include: Customer Innovation Circles, Customer News Groups, Customer Focus Groups, Customer Workshops and Quality Circles, Customer purchase behavior monitoring Surveys, Customer Clubs and Advisory Boards. The effect of Customer integration depends to a large extent on the degree of interaction these customer integration instruments induce.. Each tiered level of integration can be assigned to the different customer integration instruments,(Frohlich, M.T. and Westbrook, R., 2001).Customer observation, for example, is characterized by a low level of integration whereas integration as co-innovator or as lead user has a high level of customer integration (Bowersox et al ;1999).An Organization’s ability to integrate and internalize these external resources and innovations strongly depends on the capability of the company’s employees to accept and adapt external knowledge, information and innovation.(Cohen; Levinthal, 1990).This construct of the so-called absorptive capacity actually consists of three steps. First, the value of the external resource is perceived. Next, the external resource is internalized within the company and, last but not least, the respective resource is put to practice within the company.(Cohen; Levinthal, 1990) This actual utilization leads to a shifting from formerly external to internal knowledge. The newly internal knowledge holds the potential to create synergy effects and is essential for the generation of sustainable competitive advantages (Freiling, 2008) . Like all strategic changes, it requires the buy-in and support of top management. Corporate leaders must understand the implications of Knowledge Management (KM) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and the strategic impact of their integration. Second, corporate culture may change (i.e. knowledge sharing behaviors, collaborative activities) that requires mindful and active planning and management. Third, the change agent or program champion is also required and he/she is usually designated as Chief Knowledge Officer (CKO). The CKO must understand the issues of corporate strategy, human resource management, Information technology, Corporate culture development, Change management, leadership, team dynamics, as well as KM and CRM, and must have the persistence to carry the program, in spite of the various Constraints which arise during the process. Customer Integration is an important component of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) process that contributes to a business’s ability to compete—developed by coordinating the Supply chain (SC) with their critical customers (Bowersox et al., 1999). Each business environment has its own way of defining and identifying integration factors. A make-to-stock (MTS) firm might narrow customer integration to incorporating the retailers, while make-to-order and assemble-to-order organizations require a more diverse approach. The Important Customer Integration factors include: Communication of Availability of Merchandise to Customers, Product Demand Planning Strategies, Product Delivery and Speed, Customer Satisfaction, Customer Relationship Management Strategies, C.R.M. Technologies viz: Data Warehousing, Data-Mining ,Customer Retention Strategies, Information technology Services for Customers viz: Application Software, Product promotion web sites, Social Networks, Secure and Reliable online payment systems and Ease and speed of Billing process. The various Integration types may be divided as Transaction based, Coordination based and Collaboration based in Organizations.

Table 2: Customer Integration Type Classification:

S.No	Integration type	Applications
1	Transaction	Application of private e-marketplaces for realizing transaction execution - Complete solution realizing all steps of the transaction process - Investigation of relationships in front-end supply chain - Investigation of performance issues
2	Coordination	Tools facilitating planning and scheduling in transportation - Link between coordination system implementation and partner relationships
3	Collaboration	- Investigation of manufacturer-retailer collaboration in private e-marketplaces - Application of e-business tools in Vendor Managed Inventory(VMI) and Efficient Consumer Response( ECR) practices - Application of e-commerce tools fostering collaborative demand management

3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY:

The Questionnaire has been drafted and designed with consultation with Retail Consultants, Academicians and Practicing Managers in the Retail Sector. The Questionnaire has been modified, as suggested by the Professionals in the Retail Sector. The Seven point Likert Scale has been used for Constructs of Independent Variables (CRM Strategies and Customer Integration) and Dependent Variable (Organization Competitiveness)which is a composite construct of increase in Sales, increase in market share, increase in Customer Foot-Falls and Customer Satisfaction. The Survey Method and the Sampling procedures were followed similarly as in the case of (Dillman, 2000,[17]) and (Churchill,1979,[18]). The total sample for the study is taken as four hundred and the target respondents are Customer Relationship Managers and Staff related to Supply Chain Operations in the Retail Sector. The target respondent managers (400) were asked to rate their Customer Relationship Management (C.R.M) practices and Customer Integration (C.I) practices with reference to understanding of Organization Competitiveness in view of ever increasing competitiveness in Retail Sector. Altogether, 150 questionnaire responses were received during the first two months and with consistent, follow up to the remaining “non-respondents” additional 50 completed surveys were finalized from the Survey. Therefore the total completed surveys were 200 which are about 50% of the actual target respondents. In order to test for the presence of non-response bias, comparisons were made between survey answers from early respondents (within 2 months) and late respondents. A multivariate t-test yielded no significant mean difference between the early and late respondents at the 0.05 significance level. Therefore it suggests that non-response bias is negligible in the study.

3.1 Dependent Variable: Organization Competitiveness

The Dependent Variable Organization competitiveness is taken as a composite construct of increase in Sales, increase in market share, increase in Customer Foot-Falls and Customer Satisfaction. In the questionnaire, the respondent managers were asked to “rate Organization competitiveness, relative to important key Customer Relationship Management Strategies and Customer Integration practices implemented in Retail Organizations. The Various Independent Variables are Customer Relationship Strategies, Customer service, Product Delivery and Speed, New product Development(N.P.D), Technology, Outsourcing, Operations Dimensions, Customer Preference, Purchase Behaviour and Payment Methods. These items were measured on 7-point Likert scales with 1=”poor” to 7=”excellent”.

3.2 Independent Variables: Customer Relationship Management (C.R.M) and Customer Integration (C.I): Customer Relationship Management (C.R.M) and Customer Integration are taken as Independent Variables and the target respondents were asked to rate their degree of acceptance with the following statements. (1) Core Competencies of C.RM. and their functional applications in the Organization (2) Designing short and Long Term Relationships linked to Incentive and Recognition Systems with Customers, (3) Identifying the First Level, Second Level and Third Level C.R.M practices in Organizations (4) Organization effort in implementing the Advanced Level of C.R.M in Organization (5) Strengthening Support Processes and Core Competencies as part of C.R.M Implementation (6) Integration of Knowledge Management system with Customer Integration. Customer Integration is measured by the average response rate in (1) Sharing New product Development with Customers, (2) Demand forecasting through Customer buying behavior, (3) Taking Feedback on Customer Satisfaction in terms of Customer Relationship Management strategies implemented, (4) Implementing various levels of Customer Relationship strategies, (5) Frequency of Customer Visits and rating Customer Services, (6) Facilitating Downstream Customer Integration within the Organization. These items were measured on 7-point Likert scales with 1=”strongly disagree” to 7= “strongly agree”. All the dependent and independent variables are standardized (subtracted from the mean and then divided by the standard deviation of the original) before interaction terms between independent and Dependent variables, as suggested in (Aiken and West, 1991,[22]). These ease the interpretation of results substantially. Tables 3 and 4 present the summary statistics and Results of Multiple Regression and Factor Analysis.

The Table 3 Results and the existing Relationship between Independent Variables and Dependent Variables may be interpreted as follows:

a) Multiple Regressions with Sales Growth as Dependent Variable: The Independent Variables Customer Relationship Management Strategies (C.R.M), Customer Service, Product Delivery and Speed are found to be significant at 1% with Sales Growth as Dependent Variable. The Remaining Independent Variables are not significant with Sales Growth as Dependent Variable.

b) Multiple Regressions with Market Share as Dependent Variable: The Independent Variables Customer Relationship Management Strategies (C.R.M), Customer Service, Product Delivery and Speed are found to be significant at 1% with Market Share as Dependent Variable and the Independent Variable Sharing New Product Development (NPD) Information is significant at 10%. . The Remaining Independent Variables are not significant with Market share as Dependent Variable.

c) Multiple Regression with Customer Foot-Falls as Dependent Variable: The Independent Variables Customer Relationship Management Strategies (C.R.M) , Customer Service, Product Delivery and Speed are found to be significant at 1% with Customer Foot-Falls as Dependent Variable and the Independent Variable Sharing New Product Development (NPD)Information is significant at 5%. The Remaining Independent Variables are not significant with Customer Foot-Falls as Dependent Variable. d) Multiple Regressions with Customer Satisfaction as Dependent Variable. The Independent Variables Customer Relationship Management Strategies (C.R.M) , Customer Service, Product Delivery and Speed are found to be significant at 1% with Customer Satisfaction as Dependent Variable and the Independent Variable Sharing New Product Development Information is significant at 5%. The Remaining Independent Variables are not significant with Customer Satisfaction as Dependent Variable.

Table 4: Results of Factor Analysis

S.No	Factors	Loadings	Communalities
1	CRM Strategies	0.824	0.893
2	Customer Service	0.812	0.892
3	Product Delivery and Speed	0.833	0.904
4	Sharing New Product Development (NPD) information	0.792	0.864
5	Technology Dimension	0.801	0.885
6	Out Sourcing Dimension	0.792	0.875
7	Operations Dimension	0.782	0.891
8	Customer Preferences	0.785	0.892
9	Customer purchase Behaviour	0.803	0.883
10	Payment Methods	0.793	0.875

From Table 4, the Results of the ten Factors and their respective Loadings and Communalities exhibit the contribution of each factor in terms of Organization Competitiveness. The three important factors CRM Strategies, Customer Service, Product Delivery and speed with their respective scores exhibit inter-relationship in terms of Organization Competitiveness

4. ANALYSIS AND RESULTS:

The Hypotheses related to the Research study and the model is presented in Fig. 1. and the Variables Customer Relationship Management (C.R.M) Strategies, Customer Integration (C.I) and Organization Competitiveness were tested using multiple regression procedure with contingency effects (Aiken and West, 1991). The results for Independent Variables C.R.M Strategies, Customer Integration and Dependent Variable Organization Competitiveness are presented in Table 3, and the Model Results denoted significance at 1%, 5% and 10% respectively. Table 4, exhibits the results of Ten Factors with their respective loadings and communalities. The three important factors CRM Strategies, Customer Service, Product Delivery and speed with their respective scores were found to exhibit significant inter-relationship in terms of Organization Competitiveness.

5. DISCUSSION AND MANAGERIAL IMPLICATIONS:

In the present Research study, we have investigated the impact of Customer Relationship Management (C.R.M) and Customer Integration on achieving Organization Competitivenesss. Organization competitiveness in Indian Retail Sector is taken as a composite construct of increase in Sales, increase in market share, increase in Customer Foot-Falls and Customer Satisfaction. More specifically, we examined the effects of Customer Relationship Management (C.R.M) strategies and Customer Integration on various dimensions of Organization competitiveness. Our results confirmed the positive impact of Customer Relationship Management (C.R.M) and Customer Integration on Organization Competitiveness in Indian Retail Sector. Customer integration (CI) has been established to be an enabler for the effective continuation of a business process and its growth. Several past and recent studies have been supporting the importance of CI for the overall improvement of Organization performance (Bowersox and Monash, 1989; Lee and Billington 1992; Jammernegg and Kischka, 2005; Forme et al, 2007; Zhao et al, 2008, Payne and Frow, 2004).Customer Integration(C.I)-related studies as they appear in literature are either directed at the performance evaluation of an already implemented integration process (Zhao et al., 2008; Chow et al, 2008; Forme et al., 2007), or advocacy of the integration process (Jacob, 2006; Vickery et al., 2003)—with both founded on an opinion-based survey of Customer Relationship and Supply Chain (SC) managers. Outside these two trends, (Perona and Nicola, 2004; Jammernegg and Kischka, 2005) examined the ongoing integration processes between two firms and finally recommended the inclusion of new attributes for the continuation and improvement of the integration process. In consistent with the above research studies and findings the Results in this study have indicated the main effects and strong impact of Customer Relationship Management (C.R.M) strategies and Customer Integration(C.I) on achieving Organization competitiveness in Indian Retail Sector. In the present context, the Indian Retail Sector is experiencing fierce competition from foreign Retailers and ever changing Customer taste and preferences. The Customer unlike ever before is ever demanding and product conscious while exhibiting Purchase behavior. Information Technology (I.T) and modern electronic devices has further equipped Customer with unlimited product choice and speed in product delivery and service. (Chow et al, 2008) confirmed that customer satisfaction can be the result of Organization competency achievements, in terms of quality, service, operations, distribution and design effectiveness—supporting the statement that the customer integration process leads to increased customer satisfaction

6. CONCLUSION AND FUTURE RESEARCH:

The findings in the present Research Study has further highlighted the role of Customer Relationship Management (C.R.M) strategies and Customer Integration in achieving Organization competitiveness.

The Research further supports the existing literature on Customer Integration (C.I) as contributed by various eminent Authors and Academicians. The Research study specifically highlights role of C.R.M Strategies and Customer Integration in improving Organization competitiveness which is taken as a composite construct of increase in Sales, increase in market share, increase in Customer Foot-Falls and Customer Satisfaction. The Research findings have made very significant recommendations to Indian Retail Sector which are in the process of implementing various C.R.M Levels (First, Second, Third Levels) to improve Customer Integration process. Therefore based on the Research results, it may be stated that Customer Relationship Management (C.R.M) strategies has significant positive effect on Customer Integration (Ha1) and Customer Integration strategies has significant positive effect on Organization Competitiveness (Ha2). The Hypothesis Ha1, Ha2 are accepted while the Hypothesis Ho1, Ho2 are Rejected . The limitations to the study are that we could include Customer Relationship Management and Customer Integration mechanisms as a empirical data collection, since data collection in Indian Retail Industry is a challenging task and the Target respondents could spend limited time to respond to the Questionnaire content. The present Research on Customer Relationship Management and Customer Integration can be extended in various ways in future to examine its effects on Organization competitiveness. The Indian Retail Sector is all set to experience severe competition from Domestic and Foreign Retailers and it is important for Retail Organizations to implement state of the art Customer Relationship Management and Customer Integration strategies to operate and survive in dynamic competitive markets. The Indian Retail Sector is characterized by various influential variables viz: Talent pool availability, increasing Customer base for Retail Sector, rising purchasing power, Infrastructure support and Resource availability, New Retail Policy 2013 and favourable demographics. The Indian Retail Organizations, with all the support of Retail Associations and Retail Consultancies needs to gear up to meet the future challenges and competition from foreign retailers. The Research findings in terms of the importance of Customer Relationship Management Strategies and Customer Integration Strategies may further facilitate the Indian Retail sector in enhancing the scale and quality of operations.

7. REFERENCES

1. Aiken, L.S. and West, S.G., 1991. Multiple regression: Testing and interpreting interactions. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications

2. Barney, J. (1991). Firm resources and sustained competitive advantage Journal of Management, 1, 99-120.

3. Bowersox, D.J., Morash, E.A.( 1989), The integration of marketing flows in channels of distribution, European Journal of Marketing 23 (20), 58–67.

4. Chow, W. S., Madu, C. N., Kuei, C.-H., Lu, M. H., Lin, C., Tseng, H. (2008) Supply Chain Management in the US and Taiwan: An empirical study, Omega 36, 665-679

5. Churchill, G.A., 1979. A paradigm for developing better measures of marketing constructs. Journal of Marketing Research, 16 (1), 491-504

6. Cohen, W. M.; Levinthal, D. A. (1990): Absorptive Capacity - A New Perspective on a competency-based view. Technovation 21, pp. 147–156.

7. Dillman, D.A., 2000. Mail and Internet surveys: The tailored design method. New York: Wiley.

8. Donald J. Bowersox, D. J., Stank, T. P., and Daugherty, P. J. (1999), Lean Launch: Managing Product Introduction Risk Through Response-Based Logistics, Journal of Production Innovation Management , 16, 557-568

9. Forme, F.- A. G.-L., Genoulaz, V. B., and Campagne, J.-P. (2007) A framework to analyze collaborative performance, Computers in Industry, 58, 687-697

10. Freiling, J. (2008): RBV and the Road to the Control of External Organizations. Management Review 19, pp. 33–52

11. Frohlich, M.T. and Westbrook, R.,( 2001). Arcs of integration: an international study of supply chain strategies. Journal of Operations Management 19, 185-200.

12. Frohlich, M.T. and Westbrook, R.,( 2002). Demand chain management in manufacturing and services: web-based integration, drivers and performance. Journal of Operations Management 20, 729-745.

13. Jacob, F. (2006), Preparing industrial suppliers for customer integration, Industrial Marketing Management, 35, 45-56

14. Jammernegg, W. and Kischka, P.(2005), Dynamic, customer-oriented improvement of supply networks, European Journal of Operational Research, 167, 413-426

15. Lee, H. L., and Billington, C. (1992) Managing Supply chain inventories: pitfalls and opportunities, Sloan Management Review, 33(3), 65-73

16. Payne, A. and Frow, P. (2004), The role of multi-channel integration in customer relationship management, Industrial Marketing Management, 33, 527-538

17. Perona, M. and Saccani, N. (2004), Integration techniques in customer–supplier relationships, Journal of Operations Management, 29(2), 52-63

18. Prahalad, C.; Hamel, G. (1990): The Core Competence of the Corporation. Harvard

19. Vickery, S. K., Jayaram, J., Droge, C. and Calantone, R. (2003), The effects of an integrative supply chain strategy on customer service and financial performance: an analysis of direct versus indirect relationships, Journal of Operations Management, 21, 523-539

20. Zhang, M. J.; Lado, A. A. (2001): Information systems and competitive advantage, Journal of Information systems, 22(2), 36-47.

21. Zhao, X., Huo , B., Flynn, B. B. , and Yeung, J. H. Y. (2008) , The impact of power and relationship commitment on the integration between manufacturers and customers in a supply chain, Journal of Operations Management 26, 368-388.

Received on 22.05.2014 Modified on 28.08.2014

Asian J. Management 5(4): Oct.- Dec., 2014 page 394-400

Independent Variables	Dependent Variable(Organization Competitiveness)
Independent Variables	Sales Growth	Market Share	Customer Foot-Falls	Customer Satisfaction
CRM Strategies	0.267*	0.361*	0.385*	0.321*
Customer Service	0.285*	0.325*	0.278*	0.291*
Product Delivery and Speed	0.278*	0.264*	0.150*	0.312*
Sharing New Product Development (NPD) information	0.157	0.165***	0.180**	0.192**
Technology Dimension	-0.115	-0.043	0.074	-0.045
Out Sourcing Dimension	0.015	-0.006	-0.008	-0.007
Operations Dimension	0.012	-0.014	0.082	-0.005
Customer Preferences	0.014	0.05	0.124***	0.128***
Customer purchase behaviour	0.023	0.08	0.136***	-0.065
Payment Methods	0.006	0.02	0.165	0.152