Determining technology trends and forecasts of CRM through a historical review and bibliometric analysis of data from 1991 to 2005

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) has been identified as one of the greatest technological contributions to enterprises in the 21st century. This technology surged into the market rapidly. More and more enterprises are applying CRM to improve efficiency of operation and gain competitive advantage. In light of the awareness of the CRM trend's contribution, a historical review and bibliometric methods are applied in this research. CRM is examined using the bibliometric analysis technique on SCI and SSCI journals from 1991 to 2005. Also, the historical review method was applied to analyse CRM innovation, organisations' adoption, and diffusion. Moreover, from retrospective analysis findings, business, the health industry and privacy are the major trends and issues of adoption by enterprises. Furthermore, the contribution of CRM and forecast of the technology trend are also analysed. CRM will diffuse and be assimilated into our daily lives in the near future.