Retention · Theories-in-use qualitative study: interviews, focus groups and iterative expert/customer discussions

Customer success: An interorganizational performance concept in business markets

Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science. · 2025

Hochstein, B., Voorhees, C., M., Pratt, A., B., Rangarajan, D., Nagel, D. M., Mehrotra, V.

Summary

Customer success comprises degree, congruence and visibility of customer goal achievement; collaborative goal framing is a distinctive antecedent.

For your marketing

Possible founder application

Make onboarding and success plans explicit around customer goals and observable outcomes.

Reported result

What the study found

Customer success comprises degree, congruence and visibility of customer goal achievement; collaborative goal framing is a distinctive antecedent.

Research question

What the authors investigated

What is customer success as an interorganizational performance concept?

Design

Theories-in-use qualitative study: interviews, focus groups and iterative expert/customer discussions

Sample and setting

B2B suppliers and customers, including software/subscription contexts.

Scope and transfer

Limitations to keep in view

Abstract-only evidence; the setting/design limits generalization beyond the studied context.

Research sources

Publisher abstract

Study strength

3.5/5 Abstract-level evidence is useful for framing questions; verify full methods before transfer.

How this was assessed

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.

Design transparency · 2/2

Based on the reported study design in the retrieved source.

Sample and setting · 1/1

The sample context is stated; a numerical count is preserved only when reported.

Outcome clarity · 1/1

The finding is summarized from publisher or article metadata.

Access for checking · 0.5/1

Only abstract or bibliographic access was confirmed.

Double-blind? The retrieved publisher record does not establish whether participants or outcome assessors were blinded.

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