Atakan Yalcin

The Long Term Stock Market Valuation of Customer Satisfaction

Firm valuation has been an important domain of interest for finance. However, most financial models do not include customer-related metrics in this process. Studies in marketing have found that one particular customer metric, customer satisfaction, improves the ability to predict future cash flows, long-term financial measures, stock performance, and shareholder value. However, most of these studies predominantly employ models that are not directly used in finance practice. This article extends existing literature by examining the impact of customer satisfaction on firm valuation by employing multiples and risk-adjusted abnormal return models borrowed directly from the practice of finance. Data include 3600 firm-quarter observations from the American Customer Satisfaction Index, COMPUSTAT, and Center for Research in Securities Prices databases from 1996 to 2006. The results indicate that a portfolio of stocks consisting of firms with high levels and positive changes in customer satisfaction will outperform the other three possible portfolio combinations (low levels and negative changes, low levels and positive changes, and high levels and negative changes in customer satisfaction) along with Standard & Poors 500. Initially, the stock market undervalues positive satisfaction information, but the market adjusts in the long run.

Modeling Heterogeneity in the Satisfaction, Loyalty Intention, and Shareholder Value Linkage: A Cross-Industry Analysis at the Customer and Firm Levels

This study examines the relationship between customer satisfaction, loyalty intention, and shareholder value at the firm and individual customer levels. The authors also explore industry differences by using a multilevel and random-effects approach in which individual customer scores are nested within firm-level data and the estimated interrelationships are treated as random coefficients that are explained by industry characteristics. They compile a unique and detailed data set, which covers 10 years of information on 137 firms and includes a matched sample of 189,069 customers from multiple sources, such as the American Customer Satisfaction Index, the Center for Research in Security Prices, and Compustat, to yield three important insights. First, aggregate firm-level effects may overestimate the impact that satisfaction has at the individual customer level. Second, a consideration of loyalty intention or repurchase intention as the mediator can improve our understanding of the satisfaction–shareholder value relationship and the fact that this relationship can vary across firms. Finally, the influence of satisfaction and loyalty intentions on shareholder value varies by industry. The authors discuss implications of findings for researchers, managers, and investors.

Does Customer Satisfaction lead to an increased firm value

Abstract Does customer satisfaction really lead to increased firm value? Traditionally, most financial valuation models do not include customer-related metrics such as customer satisfaction in the process. Studies in marketing, on the other hand, have consistently found that customer satisfaction improves the ability to predict future cash flows, long-term financial measures, stock performance, and shareholder value. This research examines the impact that customer satisfaction has on firm value by employing valuation models borrowed directly from the practice of finance. The data used in the analysis is compiled by merging publicly available customer satisfaction data from the ACSI (American Customer Satisfaction Index) with financial data from COMPUSTAT, and Center for Research in Securities Prices between 1996 and 2006. The results indicate that a portfolio of stocks consisting of firms with high levels and positive changes in customer satisfaction will outperform lower satisfaction portfolios along with Standard & Poor’s 500… Customer satisfaction does matter!

Firm Boundaries, Incentives and Fund Performance: Evidence from a Private Pension Fund System

The private pension fund system in Turkey presents a unique institutional structure where bank holding companies can own both private pension companies and asset management firms. More often than not, pension companies delegate their operational mandates to the asset management arm of the same bank. This practice exposes the retail investor to a double agency problem and raises questions about conflicts of interest and fiduciary duty. Our analysis reveals that the funds set up and managed under the same bank holding company perform worse on a risk-adjusted basis than the funds with an arms length relationship between the pension company and the asset manager. We show that this relative underperformance is not simply a bank effect; bank-affiliated pension companies and asset managers do just as well, if not better than their peers, when they are not operating under the same roof. Unfortunately, this inefficient institutional structure is not eliminated by market discipline because these funds attract more flows from retail investors, and the underperformance is not discernible in raw returns.

Does the Conditional CAPM Explain Asset Pricing Anomalies? Evidence from the Istanbul Stock Exchange

This paper tests whether the conditional CAPM can explain size, book-to-market, momentum and illiquidity effects utilizing data from the Istanbul Stock Exchange (ISE). The conditional CAPM mostly fails for these standard asset pricing anomalies with statistically significant risk-adjusted portfolio returns remaining after we allow betas to vary over time. Although market betas do vary significantly, the intertemporal variation is not nearly large enough to explain the asset pricing anomalies considered.