Customer Acquisition and Retention Spending: An Analytical Model and Empirical Investigation

For your marketing

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.

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.

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

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.

Research sources

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.