Abstract:
Purpose: Sri Lanka has been under the pressure due continuous crisis
environment since 2019. Especially the micro producers have been facing
huge problem to market their products. Interaction of higher number of
intermediaries create high cost; at last retailers impose high prices for the
products. Especially, Sri Lanka has been facing political crisis which creates
the situation of severe shortage of food, electricity, fuel, and medicine,
inflation, reducing currency value etc. This situation demolishes the dream
of growth and prospectus of MSME startups. The purpose of this research is
to find out the best ways to apply the Social Customer Relationship
Management (SCRM) for the success of SME sector in Sri Lanka.
Design/Methodology/Approach: This study is built up based on the
qualitative research. Researcher selected Food based manufacturing sector
to do the research. Purposive sampling technique was applied to select the
respondents for this study. Data were collected through the focused group
discussion with the three groups, from namely, owners of the MSMEs,
Government officers and academics and students from Universities in
Northern Province.
Findings: The researcher developed a SCRM model for the micro producers
on the university and faculty platform. The model includes five
components, such as Data Base-Micro food producers, Government
Institutions and departments, University, Data base- Consumer and Social
media platforms- Supply Schedule and Demand schedule.
Research limitations: This SCRM model needs to be empirically tested for
micro producers.
Implications: It will provide market opportunity with reasonable prices
and profits. The university will take social responsibility to engage in the
community development activities. This model suggests to government
institution to collaborate with university to serve for the SME sector. This model needs to be applied in all universities and encourage them to work
for MSME sector as their corporate social responsibility activity.
