Consistency of socio-economic theory of organisations and organisational innovation: An example of customer complaint management strategy

Abstract

This present study discusses appropriate selection of research paradigm and research strategy of socio-economic theory of organisations for organisational innovation in general, customer complaint management (CCM) in particular. Ontology and epistemology of socio-economic approach to management (SEAM) methodology, mixed quantitative and qualitative methods are proved to be consistent with the implementation of CCM in small-to-medium sized enterprises (SMEs). The research indicates how to produce and generalise theoretical and practical knowledge through abductive reasoning and early-versus-latter-stage research design for a pragmatic-oriented action research. The conceptual model highlights that CCM can positively and simultaneously impact technical innovation, economic performance and social performance. One more interesting result is that economic performance can positively affect social performance. The research process includes two five-step action plans in the early stage and empirical study in latter stage. The two five-step action plans (2015-2016 and 2017-2018) analyse customer complaints, explore the causes of customer complaints from employees’ viewpoints, put forward action plans, implement action plans and evaluate organisational performance. The empirical study applies structure equation modeling, to test whether technical innovation mediates the relationship between CCM and organisational performance.