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Abstract:Institutions are slow to change in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) economies. More to the point, institutions promoting free enterprise economy are lacking in the region. Concepts and theory building are lacking on the dynamics and forces related to institutional changes in GCC economies. In an attempt to fill this void, this paper proposes a framework for identifying clear contexts and attendant mechanisms associated with institutional changes in emerging economies. We then apply the framework in the context of GCC economies. The explanations offered in this paper shed light on the nature of power balance among various institutional actors associated with GCC economies and their cognitive frameworks.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is getting more and more a key strategy for companies big and small. Customer care strategy and CRM software go hand in hand. In particular SME's need a CRM software that easily adapts to their customer care needs while still being low cost. In this paper I discuss the benefits of CRM for SME's and their special requirements wrt. CRM software. Further, I introduce the IST-project CARUSO whose objective is to provide SME's with a software framework to implement low cost, customized CRM applications. This paper presents the rational behind the CARUSO project, the architecture of the framework, and the software development process used to build the framework.

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