Perception of barriers to the adoption of CRM in the banking sector in Oman

The paradigm shift from a product-focused view to a customer-focused view advocates that organisations need to consider first and foremost the needs of their customers. In order for organisations to achieve competitive advantage they need to adopt customer-centric solutions such as CRM. However, the adoption of such systems entails barriers and risk events that may hinder successful use of CRM. This paper discusses the barriers that may have impact on potential adoption of CRM in banking sector in Oman. A range of previous studies have been critically examined to provide a background for the study and have resulted in the identification of different barrier categories, namely social, management and technical barriers. This initial categorisation was used as a priori theory for an inductive study of the Banking sector in Oman. The study used in-depth interviews with top management of 3 out of the 4 of the more representative banks in the country. The data collected was analysed using a thematic analysis approach that enabled the identification and classification of barriers into categories. These categories were then translated into a narrative that forms the theoretical proposition of this paper. The awareness of the barriers presented and discussed here will help both practitioners and academics to better understand and overcome the difficulties of CRM implementation. The paper also aims at contributing to the debate on the adoption, use and improvement of CRM.