Browsing by Author "Mittal, Vikas"

Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Customer satisfaction, loyalty behaviors, and firm financial performance: what 40 years of research tells us
    (Springer Nature, 2023) Mittal, Vikas; Han, Kyuhong; Frennea, Carly; Blut, Markus; Shaik, Muzeeb; Bosukonda, Narendra; Sridhar, Shrihari
    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.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Market-Based Assets, Value Appropriation Activities, and Cash Flow Outcomes
    (2015-04-21) Frennea, Carly; Mittal, Vikas; Hoskisson, Robert E.; Oswald, Frederick L.; Moorman, Christine
    Understanding marketing’s contributions to the financial performance of firms is an important question for the field. A critical performance metric is cash flow vulnerability, or the potential for downside cash flow outcomes relative to a target level. In Essay One, I conceptually develop the cash flow vulnerability construct and distinguish it from a seemingly related construct, cash flow volatility, by tracing their unique nomological networks. I also provide a deeper examination of how market-based assets reduce cash flow vulnerability. Specifically, I systematically describe the mechanisms underlying the protective effect of two market-based assets—brand equity and customer relationships—on cash flow vulnerability. In Essay Two, my focus is on two value appropriation activities that support brand equity and customer relationships—advertising and receivables management, respectively. I examine how the incremental effect of advertising expenditures and accounts receivable on cash flow outcomes is moderated by two contextual factors: business scope (a firm characteristic) and consumer sentiment (an environmental characteristic). I simultaneously explore three cash flow outcomes—levels, volatility, and vulnerability. To test these relationships, I utilize a dataset composed of over 2,500 firms from 1999 to 2013. I find that the incremental effect of advertising and receivables on cash flow outcomes is contingent on business scope and consumer sentiment and provide managers strategic prescriptions based on these findings. Specifically, (1) narrow business scope firms can maximize cash flow performance via low levels of receivables; high levels of advertising increase cash flow levels and decrease cash flow volatility, but not cash flow vulnerability; (2) broad business scope firms can increase cash flow levels and reduce cash flow vulnerability via low levels of advertising and receivables; however, high levels of advertising and receivables are needed to reduce cash flow volatility; (3) when consumer sentiment is low, firms can maximize cash flow performance via low levels of advertising and receivables; and (4) when consumer sentiment is high, no clear strategy emerges and firms must engage in trade-offs based on their cash flow performance goals.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Revitalizing educational institutions through customer focus
    (Springer Nature, 2024) Mittal, Vikas; Jung, Jihye
    Despite the importance of education in terms of spending and its impact, dissatisfaction with traditional public schools is growing due to students’ underperformance. One reason, among many, is the lack of strategic focus among educational institutions. The authors theoretically and empirically demonstrate the benefits of a customer-focused approach to strategy planning and execution for improving student performance. A customer-focused strategy enables educational institutions to identify customer needs providing the most value to customers, align strategy execution to those needs, and ultimately improve customer loyalty and academic outcomes. We demonstrate the approach using data from qualitative interviews with school leaders and surveys from 10,644 K12 parents. We conclude that a customer-focused approach helps educational institutions satisfy their customers and achieve higher academic outcomes.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Safety Culture and Firm Performance
    (2022-04-22) Im, Taehoon; Mittal, Vikas; Sridhar, Shrihari
    Firms may face substantial costs due to safety crises. Such costs arise when their products and services harm customers or when they lack employee safety at the workplace. To deal with such costs, many firms invest in establishing and promoting safety culture within their organizations. This dissertation is to investigate the effects of safety culture on firm performance. Chapter 1 provides a literature review of prior research examining the association between safety culture and its outcomes. To do so, I examine prior research on (1) safety culture, (2) measures of safety culture and (3) the association between safety culture and its outcomes to customers, employees and firms. Therefore, Chapter 1 shows the areas that need to be further investigated in the stream of research on safety culture. Chapter 2 develops a new measure of safety culture. By adapting from the three most widely used existing measures of safety culture (i.e., Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture (HSOPS), Safety Attitude Questionnaire (SAQ) and Patient Safety Climate in Healthcare Organization (PSCHO)), I develop a safety culture scale that is applicable to multiple industries. By doing so, Chapter 2 provides a means to measuring safety culture of the organizations beyond particular industries (e.g., healthcare industry). Chapter 3 establishes the association among safety culture, customer/employee safety outcomes, customer/employee satisfaction and firm performance. Prior empirical research has not looked at the effects of safety culture in terms of customer satisfaction and firm performance (e.g., sales), which are important to executives and managers who decide to invest in establishing and promoting safety culture within organizations. I empirically test the safety culture-firm performance chain link based on (1) customer-and employee-reported safety culture, (2) perceived and objective, and self-reported and observed customer and employee safety outcomes, (3) single-and multi-item customer and employee satisfaction, and (4) self-reported and observed firm performance. Chapter 3 shows that the full safety culture-customer/employee safety outcomes-customer/employee satisfaction-firm performance chain link is well established in multi-industry, single-firm and business-to-business settings. The findings of this dissertation provide implications to executives and managers, enabling them to leverage safety culture to enhance their customer, employee and firm value.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    The Dual Role of Advertising in Brand Management
    (2019-04-17) Han, Kyuhong; Mittal, Vikas
    Brand equity is one of the most valuable intangible assets a firm possesses. Yet the underlying process through which advertising increases brand equity and the outcomes of brand equity is not well understood. Chapter 1 provides a systematic review of studies examining the association between advertising and brand equity along with the outcomes of brand equity. To do so, I review research on (1) the dimensions of brand equity, (2) the association of advertising with brand equity, and (3) their association with customer purchase and firm performance. By doing so, Chapter 1 uncovers areas that need further investigation in the stream of research, thereby suggesting future research directions. Chapter 2 empirically investigates the association between advertising, brand equity, customer purchase, and firm sales. Specifically, advertising builds a firm’s brand by (1) increasing brand awareness and (2) enhancing brand image. These, in turn, increase customer purchase and firm performance. Extant research has not disentangled advertising spending’s relative impact on each of the two paths, which is important for managers when deciding both advertising budgets and allocations across multiple media. I leverage a unique dataset of .84 million observations representing 1,999 brands to examine how advertising affects awareness and familiarity (i.e., brand awareness) as well as perceived quality (i.e., brand image). Moreover, I estimate advertising effectiveness separately by national, regional, and online media, which is important for resource-allocation implications. I also account for potential endogeneity in advertising using the identification strategy of partially overlapping peer groups. I find that national advertising contributes to brand building by not only increasing brand awareness but also enhancing perceived quality. In contrast, regional advertising simultaneously enhances and damages a brand—that is it enhances brand awareness but harms perceived quality. Online advertising does not have a significant association with the brand-equity components. Importantly, the results show, in total (i.e., through brand awareness and perceived quality), national advertising has a positive association with purchase intention, whereas regional and online advertising have a nonsignificant association with purchase intention. To further provide managers with insights, I investigate how these effects of advertising translate into sales.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    The Impact of Political Identity on Consumer Behavior
    (2019-04-18) Jung, Ji Hye; Mittal, Vikas
    Over the past decade, consumers’ political identity has become more salient because of increased political polarization. As such, companies need to better understand how consumers’ political identity affects their attitudes and behaviors. In my dissertation, I investigate whether and how consumers’ political identity influences important decisions that are seemingly unrelated to political identity. I further explore individual and situational factors that moderate the effect of political identity on consumer decisions. Specifically, I focus on parents’ choice of supplemental education programs (SEPs) examining the contingent effect of political identity on consumer decision-making. The market for SEPs—tutorials, educational materials, and summer programs—has burgeoned, but how these spending decisions are made is not well understood. I examine how parents’ political identity affects their preference for SEPs based on their self- versus other focus. My argument is based on two main educational orientations—conformance orientation and independence orientation—which are used to design SEPs. I argue that SEPs with a conformance-oriented pedagogy may be preferred more by conservative parents, whereas SEPs with an independence-oriented pedagogy may be preferred more by liberal parents. This association of political identity and preference for SEPs is moderated by parents’ self- versus other focus. Counterintuitively, when using political orientation to target messages for SEPs, firms should frame these messages in such a way that makes parents focus on themselves rather than on children so that identity-consistent effects can manifest. Ten studies—including a field study at educational institutions and secondary data analysis—test this theorizing and replicate the key results by using different measures of political identity and self- versus other focus.