Impact of Customer Knowledge Management on Organizational Value Creation in B2C E-commerce

Due to the rapid improvement of information technology in e-commerce, a high capacity has been provided to enhance customer relations and increase knowledge interactions among customers and organizations to maximize value creation. The main purpose of this study is to investigate the role of customer knowledge management in organizational value creation in B2C e-commerce.

A qualitative-quantitative framework was used in this survey. In the qualitative part, based on the thematic analysis, data related to identifying and categorizing the model components were collected and coded through reviewing the academic literature and conducting 16 semi-structured interviews with B2C e-commerce managers. In the quantitative part, research hypotheses were validated by the structural equation modeling method and PLS software. The participants included 392 organizational managers and e-commerce experts.

Components of customer knowledge management and organizational value creation were identified and categorized in the qualitative section of the current study. In its quantitative stage, the effect of customer knowledge management dimensions on organizational value creation was shown.

The results of path analysis proved that the dimensions of customer knowledge management variable (i.e., knowledge from the customer, knowledge for the customer, and knowledge about the customer) affect the dimensions of organizational value creation in e-commerce (i.e. novelty, efficiency, customer retention, and additional service). According to the results, knowledge from the customer has the maximum effect on novelty, additional service, and efficiency. Moreover, the effects of knowledge from the customer on customer retention and knowledge about the customer on additional service were minimum. Therefore, it is essential for B2C e-commerce managers to consider the interrelationships between customer knowledge management and organizational value creation and customer satisfaction, using appropriate indicators to measure the relevant knowledge components in customer knowledge management. On the other hand, due to the increasing growth of customer knowledge and the necessity of managing such knowledge in B2C e-commerce for organizational value creation, organizations are now paying further attention to the management processes to arrive at a sustainable competitive level.