An organization's customer response capability, its competence
in satisfying customer needs through effective and
quick responses, is critical for sustained success. In this
article, the authors examine how customer knowledge process
influences customer response capability. They highlight
two dimensions of customer response capability,
customer response expertise and customer response
speed. It is observed that apart from its direct positive association
with customer response expertise and speed, the
customer knowledge process also diminishes the positive
association between risk propensity and these dimensions
of customer response capability. The influence of customer
response expertise and speed on performance is
also examined. The hypotheses are tested using survey
data collected from a sample of retailing firms and the
findings triangulated using qualitative data collected
through depth interviews with managers. The results
highlight the importance of customer knowledge in enhancing
customer response capabilib: