Business-to-business (B-to-B) firms compete through multidimensional strategy scope, simultaneously emphasizing domains such as product/service quality, pricing, selling processes, project management, communication, sustainability, and after-sales support. Over time, strategy scope changes are common. Yet, we lack systematic evidence on how B-to-B firms’ strategy scope evolves over time, what drives switching, and when switching strategy scope enhances firm performance. We answer these questions by developing an integrated empirical framework that combines transformer-based text analysis of 10-K filings, hidden Markov modeling, and panel econometric methods. Using 29,340,577 sentences from 60,280 filings for 4,540 B-to-B firms over 21 years, we construct a scalable longitudinal measure of firms’ multidimensional strategy scope across eight strategy areas and model strategy evolution as movement among latent strategy states. The hidden Markov model reveals three recurring configurations: a Value-Focused state emphasizing quality, pricing, and sales process; an Expanded-Focus state emphasizing project management, ongoing service/support, and sustainability; and a Diffused-Focus state with broadly distributed attention across multiple domains. Strategy evolution is non-monotonic: approximately one-third of firms switch at least once and one-fifth switch more than once in our 21-year long panel. Results show firm and industry characteristics systematically predict both the likelihood and direction of switching among latent strategy states, consistent with path dependence and adjustment costs. Switching has large performance effects on sales growth and firm value (Tobin’s q). Most notably, switching into the Value-Focused state improves financial performance, regardless of the originating state, challenging the prevailing view that strategy evolution necessarily involves movement toward more diffuse or relational configurations.

While ubiquitous digital access has positively transformed the world in many ways, firms are also concerned about digital attacks from a small portion of customers, such as scammers, review bombers, and trolls. Without an overarching strategy to address digital customer misconduct, firms may face financial and reputational risks. In this study, we present an integrative theoretical framework for marketing theory and practice. We begin by defining digital customer misconduct and highlighting the unique characteristics that distinguish it from traditional offline misconduct. Based on this definition, we propose a 2 × 2 typology that categorizes different types of misconduct according to the miscreants' motives: monetary rewards (economic gain) and/or harming social others (social victimization). We collate strategies that have been widely used in practice to combat digital customer misconduct proactively and reactively; these prevention and mitigation strategies expand or curtail the opportunities available to miscreants. Overall, our framework provides a comprehensive understanding of the current ecosystem of digital customer misconduct and identifies future research opportunities.

The authors synthesize research on the relationship of customer satisfaction with customer- and firm-level outcomes using a meta-analysis based on 535 correlations from 245 articles representing a combined sample size of 1,160,982. The results show a positive association of customer satisfaction with customer-level outcomes (retention, WOM, spending, and price) and firm-level outcomes (product-market, accounting, and financial-market performance). A moderator analysis shows the association varies due to many contextual factors and measurement characteristics. The results have important theoretical and managerial implications.

Previous research assumes an unconditionally positive association of perceived switching costs-financial, procedural and relational-with repurchase intentions. Building on the theory of context-dependent preference formation, the authors posit price sensitivity as a contextual factor that moderates the relationship of repurchase intentions with three different types of switching costs - financial, procedural and relational. Using a large-scale dataset (N=8,588) spanning multiple industries in the B2B domain, the authors show that price sensitivity moderates these associations such that: (1) the negative association of financial switching costs with repurchase intention is stronger when price sensitivity is low, (2) the positive association of procedural switching costs with repurchase intention is stronger when price sensitivity is low and (3) the positive association of relational switching costs with repurchase intentions is stronger when price sensitivity is high. Linking repurchase intentions to actual sales underscores the practical relevance of their results.

Download This Paper Open PDF in Browser Add Paper to My Library Share: Permalink Using these links will ensure access to this page indefinitely Copy URL Return On Strategy-Customer Alignment 58 Pages Posted: 27 Jul 2022 See all articles by Narendra BosukondaNarendra BosukondaTexas A&M University (TAMU), Mays Business School, Business Administration - MarketingSonam SinghAlvarez College of Business, University of Texas at San AntonioShrihari SridharTexas A&M University - Department of MarketingVikas MittalRice UniversityAshwin MalsheESSEC Business School - Marketing Department Date Written: June 24, 2022 Abstract A common belief among academicians and practitioners is that a company’s strategy should be aligned with its customers' value drivers to deliver superior financial performance. Yet, extant literature lacks 1) an objective measure of strategy-customer alignment, 2) empirical research linking strategy-customer alignment and objective financial performance 3) an understanding of how strategy-customer alignment affects senior executives’ attitudes and behaviors. We define strategy-customer alignment to capture four types of alignment between a company’s business strategy scope and its customer value drivers. In Study 1, we combine data from 17,251 customer surveys of 127 publicly traded companies to estimate customer value drivers and deep learning of text from annual 10-K filings to estimate business strategy scope. These are used to measure strategy-customer alignment at the company-year level. A 10% increase in strategy-customer alignment: (1) increases revenues by 25%, (2) reduces the cost of selling by 20%, and (3) increases gross profits by 18%. In Study 2 we measure strategy-customer alignment for five private companies. We combine 152 surveys of senior executives to measure strategy scope and 1,122 customer surveys to estimate customer value drivers. Results show an increase in strategy-customer alignment reduces senior executives’ coordination costs and increases their perceived effectiveness of accountability metrics. Keywords: marketing strategy effectiveness, customer value drivers, customer satisfaction, natural language processing, financial performance JEL Classification: M31, L1, L25 Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation Bosukonda, Narendra and Singh, Sonam and Sridhar, Shrihari and Mittal, Vikas and Malshe, Ashwin, Return On Strategy-Customer Alignment (June 24, 2022). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4145954 Narendra Bosukonda (Contact Author) Texas A&M University (TAMU), Mays Business School, Business Administration - Marketing ( email ) Sonam Singh Alvarez College of Business, University of Texas at San Antonio ( email ) Shrihari Sridhar Texas A&M University - Department of Marketing ( email ) 430 WehnerCollege Station, TX 77843-4218United States HOME PAGE: http://mays.tamu.edu/directory/shriharisridhar/ Vikas Mittal Rice University ( email ) 6100 South Main Street250 McNairHouston, TX 77005-1892United States Ashwin Malshe ESSEC Business School - Marketing Department ( email ) France Download This Paper Open PDF in Browser Do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on SSRN? 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Health care providers and policy makers measure and report patient-satisfaction (PSAT) scores as an implicit proxy for quality of care (QOC), a metric used to reimburse physicians and determine bonus or penalties for Medicare payments. These practices assume i) a strong and positive association of subjective PSAT judgments and objective QOC outcomes (e.g., mortality, recovery time), and ii) accurate consumer beliefs about the PSAT–QOC association. Study 1 (a national survey of 9,449 respondents) shows that consumer belief about the PSAT–QOC correlation is .69. However, Study 2 reveals that the objective PSAT–QOC correlation is .24 based on a meta-analysis of 198 studies. Study 3, a choice-based conjoint analysis, shows that as consumer beliefs diverge from the objective correlation, they are more likely to choose hospitals producing worse clinical outcomes. Study 4 shows that interventions informing consumers of the objective correlation can increase the accuracy of consumer beliefs about it. For executives and regulators, the results elucidate the financial and consumer well-being risks of assuming high correspondence of consumer beliefs with objective reality, while suggesting interventions that can engender accurate consumer beliefs. Theoretically, the results suggest reimagining and evaluating the potential unintended consequences of information environments in health care.

Marketing scholars have hypothesized and found a linear and symmetric association between different dimensions of customer commitment and behavioral intentions. We utilize a four dimensional conceptualization of commitment to hypothesize an asymmetric association among the different dimensions of commitment and repurchase intentions. We test for this asymmetric association using a large-scale dataset (N=8,589) in the Business to Business (B-to-B) segment. Results show an asymmetric association of affective, forced, habitual commitment with repurchase intentions, while economic commitment displays a symmetric association with repurchase intentions.