Marketing’s Impact on Firm Value: Generalizations from a Meta-Analysis

  • Date published August 1, 2016
  • Publication Journal of Marketing Research
  • Expertise
    Meta Analysis, Marketing Firm Value Elasticity, Empirical Marketing Generalizations, Hierarchical Linear Model
Sonika agarwal 9 M Ge1 Gf J4 IE unsplash

The interest in the value relevance of marketing investments has given rise to numerous studies on the marketing–finance interface. This study integrates extant research findings and establishes empirical generalizations on marketing's impact on firm value.

Specifically, the authors conduct a meta-analysis of prior econometric elasticity estimates of the stock market impact of marketing actions and marketing assets. Analyses based on 488 elasticities drawn from 83 studies reveal a mean elasticity of .04 for advertising expenditure variables and of .54 for marketing asset variables. Among marketing assets, customer-related assets show a higher mean elasticity of .72, compared with .33 for brand-related assets.

Further analyses show that advertising elasticities are lower in more concentrated industries and that marketing asset elasticities are higher during recession times. Researchers should also be aware that characteristics of the research design (e.g., the type of firm value metric used, the omission of control variables, or not accounting for endogeneity) may affect the estimation results.

Downloads

Full article

Authors

Alexander Edeling

Alexander Edeling

Associate Professor of Marketing (KU Leuven)

Show profile
Marc Fischer

Marc Fischer

Professor of Marketing and Market Research, University of Cologne / Professor of Marketing, University of Technology Sydney