Development and Validation of a Maturity Assessment Model for Social Customer Knowledge Management in Electronic Emergency Services

Abstract

Rapid developments in information technology and the emergence of social networks have transformed the role of customers from passive recipients of services into active stakeholders. Today, customers participate in social networks, share their feedback, experiences, and knowledge, and thereby influence organizational processes. This paradigm shift has created valuable opportunities for leveraging customer knowledge; however, it has simultaneously introduced complex challenges associated with managing unstructured and dynamic data. Particularly in organizations that provide critical services, such as emergency services, rapid and accurate decision-making requires access to reliable and properly analyzed data. The aim of this study was to develop and validate a maturity assessment model for Social Customer Knowledge Management (SCKM) in electronic emergency services. The present study was applied-developmental in nature and employed a descriptive research design. Data were collected using a researcher-developed questionnaire from a statistical population of 230 employees working in electronic emergency services. The findings indicated that the maturity of Social Customer Knowledge Management across the customer, organizational, and process dimensions ranged from moderate to high. The Composite Reliability (CR), Average Variance Extracted (AVE), and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) results confirmed the validity and reliability of the model. Furthermore, the goodness-of-fit indices (CFI = 0.95, TLI = 0.94, RMSEA = 0.045, and SRMR = 0.043) demonstrated a high degree of consistency between the empirical data and the proposed theoretical framework.