Acquisition and retention · Analytical model tested with cross-country firm-level operating data
Customer Acquisition and Retention Spending: An Analytical Model and Empirical Investigation
Sungwook Min, Xubing Zhang, Namwoon Kim, Rajendra K. Srivastava (2016). Customer Acquisition and Retention Spending: An Analytical Model and Empirical Investigation. Journal of Marketing Research. https://doi.org/10.1509/jmr.14.0170
Plain-English take
Acquisition cost per customer is more sensitive than retention cost to market position and competition; market leaders have a substantial acquisition-cost advantage but no comparable retention-cost advantage.
How much weight to give this
2/5 Observational or survey evidence; interpret as association
The 1–5 evidence-check score is a practical reading aid, not a formal peer review or a probability that a conclusion is true. It combines design strength (2 points), sample reporting (1), comparison/control clarity (1), and how much of the paper could be checked (1). Access affects how confidently this directory can assess a study, not the study's underlying quality. Blinding is reported separately because it is not relevant to every design.
Analytical model tested with cross-country firm-level operating data
Wireless telecommunications firms in 41 countries, 1999–2007
Comparison details need confirmation in the full paper.
Only the publisher page was checked; full-text methods are not established.
Double-blind? Blinding was not established from the publisher page; this is not evidence that blinding was or was not used.
Research question
What the authors investigated
Customer Acquisition and Retention Spending: An Analytical Model and Empirical Investigation?
Design
Analytical model tested with cross-country firm-level operating data
Sample and setting
Wireless telecommunications firms in 41 countries, 1999–2007
Reported result
What the study found
Acquisition cost per customer is more sensitive than retention cost to market position and competition; market leaders have a substantial acquisition-cost advantage but no comparable retention-cost advantage.
This is a paraphrase of the source. Check the original paper for definitions, estimates, statistical uncertainty and analysis details.
Scope and transfer
Limitations to keep in view
The analysis uses archival wireless-telecom data from 1999–2007 and inferred cost relationships rather than randomized interventions, limiting causal interpretation and applicability to newer or non-telecom services. The accessible publisher page was used for this listing; correction history was not independently checked.
Possible founder application
Use as a bounded example of customer acquisition and retention spending: an analytical model and empirical investigation; compare its context and design with your own market before applying its result.
Evidence access
Publisher article page; full-text availability varies and was not established in this review.
The page states that the empirical investigation uses firm-level operating data from wireless telecommunications markets in 41 countries during 1999–2007 and finds acquisition cost is more sensitive to market position and competition than retention cost. Publisher page was directly retrieved; detailed full-text methods were not independently verified.
If only an abstract or metadata was available, the profile is limited to claims supported there. A paper's paywall does not change its evidentiary status, but it limits what we can substantiate from accessible text.