Five Styles of Customer Knowledge Management, and How Smart Companies Use Them To Create Value

Corporations are beginning to realize that the proverbial 'if we only knew what we know' also includes 'if we only knew what our customers know.' The authors discuss the concept of Customer Knowledge Management (CKM), which refers to the management of knowledge from customers, i.e. knowledge resident in customers. CKM is contrasted with knowledge about customers, e.g. customer characteristics and preferences prevalent in previous work on knowledge management and customer relationship management. Five styles of CKM are proposed and practically illustrated by way of corporate examples. Implications are discussed for knowledge management, the resource based view, and strategy process research.