Frontline Employees’ Adaptive Performance in Service Encounters: The Driving Force of CRM Systems

The customer relationship management (CRM) system has been touted as a primary tool for supporting frontline employees’ personalized service tasks. However, while a number of studies focus on the critical role of CRM systems in organizational performance, the link between CRM systems and individual performance is still under-investigation. In order to fill this research gap, this study focuses on the IT-driven adaptive performance of frontline employees in the service context. Based on coping theory, we present a nuanced understanding of the impacts of two kinds of CRM systems (i.e., CRM systems to support interaction-related and prioritization-related tasks) on employees’ adaptive capability, which in turn enhances adaptive performance. In addition, the substitutive role of task-related embodied knowledge for CRM systems will be investigated. The results of this study will highlight the importance of adaptive capability in mediating the relationship between CRM systems and adaptive performance