CUSTOMER SATISFACTION ON FIRM PERFORMANCE
AN ECONOMETRIC MODEL AND DATA ENVELOPMENT APROACH
Luis Fernando Angulo
Autonomous University of Barcelona, Business Economics Department
08193 Bellaterra (Cerdanyola del Vallès), Barcelona, Spain
Tel. +34 93 581 1209, Fax +34 93 581 2555
Email: LuisFernando.Angulo@uab.es
ABSTRACT
This research focuses its attention to support empirically and not separately the impact of marketing activities, brand equity and customer satisfaction on firm performance. In addition, this study intends to fill the gap of marketing efficiency effect on long-term profits. Through methodology of three stages, two by econometric models and one using data envelopment analysis, the authors provide empirical evidence for the marketing link to firm value. Firstly, the results in the first stage confirm the impact of marketing assets on short-term performance. Secondly, the marketing efficiency shows that there are firms that have better abilities to maximize results in terms of marketing activities. Finally, some future research lines were considered.
Keywords: Advertising, Brand Equity, Customer Satisfaction, Data Envelopment
Analysis, Marketing Efficiency, Marketing Impact, Firm Value.
1
PROBLEM STATEMENT AND PURPOSE
Nowadays, Marketing has to face some situations that the new business environment brings with it. One of them is related to the evolution of business atmosphere from
Marshall Economy labelled as bulk-processing (Arthur 1996) to the Positive Feedback
Economy known as the increasing returns (Arthur 1989, 1990, 1999) as well as the knowledge-processing. In addition, the second situation is linked to the operational and business unit level that Marketing take up in the organization (Ambler 2000). The last situation is connected not only with the increasing expectative of the board to get shortterm profits but also with the rising relevance of the
References: Aaker, D. (1991) Managing Brand Equity. New York: The Free Press. Ambler, T. (2000) Marketing metrics. Business Strategy Review, Volume 11, Nº 2: 5966. Anderson, E.W., and M.W. Sullivan (1993) Antecedents and Consequences of Customer Satisfaction for Firms Anderson, E.W., C. Fornell, and D.R. Lehman (1994) Customer Satisfaction, Market Share and Profitability: Findings from Sweden Anderson, E.W., C. Fornell, and S.K. Mazvancheryl (2004) Customer Satisfaction and Shareholder Value Arthur, W.B. (1989) Competing Technologies, Increasing Returns and Lock-in by Historical Events Arthur, W.B. (1990) Positive Feedbacks in the Economy. Scientific American, Issue 262, February: 92-99. Arthur, W.B. (1996) Increasing Returns and the New World of Business. Harvard Business Review, July-August, 100-109. Arthur, W.B. (1999) Complexity and the Economy. Science, Issue 284, Volume 2, April: 107-109. Assmus, G., J.U. Farley, and D.R. Lehmann (1984) How Advertising Affects SalesMeta Analysis of Econometrics Results. Journal of Marketing Research, Volume 21, Nº 1: 65-74. Banker, R.D., A. Charnes, W.W. Cooper (1984) Some Models for Estimating Technical and Scale Efficiencies in Data Envelopment Analysis Barney, J. (1991) Firm Resources and Sustained Competitive Advantage. Journal of Management, Volume 17, Nº 1: 99-120. Boles, J.S., N. Donthu, and R. Lohtia (1995) Salesperson Evaluation Using Relative Performance Efficiency: The Application of Data Envelopment Analysis. Bolton, R., and J. Drew (1991) A Longitudinal Analysis of the Impact of Service Changes on Customer Attitudes Charnes, A., W.W. Cooper, and E. Rhodes (1978) Measuring the Efficiency of Decision Making Units Charnes, A., W.W. Cooper, D.B. Learner, and F.Y. Philips (1985) Management Science and Marketing Management Chung, K.H., and S.W. Pruitt (1994) A Simple Aproximation of Tobin’s Q. Financial Management, Volume 23, Nº 3: 70-74. Clarke, D.G. (1976) Econometric Measurement of Duration of Advertising Effects on Sales Collis, D.J. (1991) A Resource-Based Analysis of Global Competition: The case of the Bearings Industries Danaher, P.J., and R.T. Rust (1996) Determining the Optimal Return on Investment for an Advertising Campaign Dekimpe, M.G., and , D.M. Hanssens (1995) The Persistence of Marketing Effects on Sales Dodds, W.B., K.B. Monroe, and D. Grewal (1991) Effect of Price, Brand, and Store Information on Buyers ' Product Evaluations Donthu, N., and B. Yoo (1998) Retail Productivity Assessment using Data Envelopment Analysis Donthu, N., E.K. Hershberger, and T. Osmonbekov (2005) Benchmarking Marketing Productivity using Data Envelopment Analysis Douglas, S.P., and C.S. Craig (1989) Evolution of Global Marketing Strategy: Scale, Scope and Synergy Eisenhardt, K.M. (1985) Control: Organizational and Economic Approaches. Färe, R., S. Grosskopf, B.J. Seldon, and V.J. Tremblay (2004) Advertising efficiency and the choice of media mix: a case of beer Fitzgerald, J. (2004) Evaluating Return on Investment of Multimedia Advertising with a Single-Source Panel: A Retail Case Study Fornell, C., M.D. Johnson, E.W. Anderson, J. Cha, and B.E. Bryant (1996) The American Customer Satisfaction Index: Nature, Purpose and Findings. Fortune (2005) Up, Up, and Away: Largest U.S. Corporation. Fortune, April: 232-255. Grant, R.M. (1991) The Resource-Based Theory of Competitive Advantage: Implications for Strategy Formulation Gruca, T.S., and L.L. Rego (2005) Customer Satisfaction, Cash Flow, and Shareholder Value Gupta, S., and V. Zeithaml (2005) Customer Metrics: The Past, The Present, and The Future in Academia and Practice Hamel, G., and C.K. Prahalad (1994) Competing for the Future. Harvard Business Review, Volume 72, Nº 4: 122-128. Ittner, C.D., and D.F. Larcker (1996) Measuring the Impact of Quality Iniciatives on Firm Financial Performance: Advances in the Management of Mazvancheryl, 2004, "Customer Satisfaction and Shareholder Value", Journal of Marketing, Volume 68, October: 172-185.