Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this article is to examine the relevance of academic research, in terms of topic match, to commercial practice in information technology, using the case study of a large and very rapidly growing supplier that uses leading edge management approaches, Salesforce.com. Design/methodology/approach Academic literature review and review of commercial literature and information published by Salesforce.com. Findings Academics choice of topics matches the issues and topics present in the development of Salesforce.com, but suffers from the lack of interdisciplinary approach, and particularly fails to integrate technical, marketing and financial approaches. Research limitations The case study is of only one company, though an important one, although other large companies are involved e.g. Amazon Web Services. However, the approach could easily be widened to several companies. Practical implications The case study approach will help academics focus on creating more applicable research, and help students to learn about companies, and may also eventually help practitioners to create thought leadership. Social implications If the financial and economic aspects of such case studies are integrated with other business aspects, these will provide a better view of the positive (or negative) contribution made by companies such as the one in the case study. Originality/value This is the first time that a case study has been examined in the context of the relevance/rigour debate. Keywords Salesforce.com, customer relationship management, cloud computing, software as a service, app development, platform. Paper type Conceptual