A curated scientific evidence directory
Explore peer-reviewed field experiments and meta-analyses on SaaS trials, email, paid search, referrals, content sharing and choice design. Compare methods, context and limits.
Separate new demand from timing shifts and substitution when evaluating free access. Define incremental outcomes and follow customers long enough to see whether a free experience creates durable adoption.
Unlike coupons, the studied free samples produced measurable long-term sales effects observable up to 12 months later.
Measure the amount and sentiment of customer discussion separately and connect both to sales outcomes. Treat review volume and valence as distinct signals, not interchangeable scores.
Looking across the studies, stronger online word of mouth effects for tangible goods that are new to the market; product life cycle did not moderate the effect for services.
When testing SaaS tiers, consider how a new premium option changes comparison among existing plans. Run a controlled packaging test and monitor plan mix and total contribution, not only premium-tier conversion.
Paperback titles accompanied by an additional premium version had higher sales than control titles.
Use as evidence that review volume and valence can matter while designing review and reputation programs. For SaaS, monitor independent review sources and test whether reviews influence qualified pipeline or conversion.
Review valence and volume were positively related to sales elasticities.
Encourages measuring email's full downstream value rather than clicks alone. For SaaS, connect email exposure to later product activation, opportunities, and revenue with a credible design.
Email advertising was associated with increased sales across channels through higher purchase probability and a wider variety of products bought; effects varied across product types and customer segments.
A second synthesis supporting a context-dependent view of reviews. Check whether your SaaS category and buyer risk resemble the products represented before applying an effect.
Looking across the studies, product-category moderation.
A foundational example of why negative feedback may carry asymmetric weight and why review text can matter. SaaS buyers and review platforms differ, so test the effect on your own category and conversion path.
An improvement in a book's reviews increased its relative sales at that site.
Rare direct evidence on startup budget allocation: consider customer education and founder-led sales early, then build broader media as the company matures. This is longitudinal association, not a randomized budget rule.
Higher personal-sales spending shares were associated with stronger performance in earlier startup stages but weaker performance later.
One of the few studies directly about B2B startups. It challenges the assumption that early startups should avoid systematic marketing, but does not prescribe a channel or spending amount.
Systematic marketing investment was associated with higher valuation for early-stage B2B startups, while effects varied by customer type and development stage.
Use as a bounded example of understanding the effect of customer relationship management efforts on customer retention and customer share development; compare its context and design with your own market before applying its result.
CRM contacts were not uniformly beneficial: effects on retention and share depended on customer profitability and contact strategy.
Use this paper as evidence about complexity of sales situation and sales lead performance: an empirical study in business-to-business company in the stated context; compare its population, treatment and outcome with your own decision.
Close customer collaboration increased the probability that a lead was canceled. The authors conclude that collaboration-focused selling may not increase hit rates in highly collaborative B2B environments.
Use this paper as evidence about hunting for new customers: assessing the drivers of effective salesperson prospecting and conversion in the stated context; compare its population, treatment and outcome with your own decision.
Prospecting and conversion have an implicit trade-off with a sweet spot maximizing acquisition. More-experienced salespeople acquired fewer new customers; advertising support and extrinsic rewards improved conversion more for experienced reps.
Use this study as a bounded example related to measuring b2b social selling: key activities, antecedents and performance outcomes; evaluate whether its customers, intervention and outcome match your own context.
All three social-selling dimensions were supported. Thought leadership and acquisition performance mediated the sales-performance relationship; management support, sales-technology orientation, and social influence were important drivers.
Use this study as a bounded example related to do mobile banner ads increase sales? yes, in the offline channel; evaluate whether its customers, intervention and outcome match your own context.
Offline sales increased about 2%; online sales did not significantly change, and there was no evidence of cross-channel cannibalization. A positive lagged offline effect was also reported.
Use this study as a bounded example related to online ads and offline sales: measuring the effect of retail advertising via a controlled experiment on yahoo!; evaluate whether its customers, intervention and outcome match your own context.
The experiment finds a positive causal effect of online advertising on retail sales, including offline purchases, and reports that the campaign was profitable. It demonstrates that display advertising can generate measurable sales beyond the online channel.
Use this study as a bounded example related to social media use in b2b sales and its impact on competitive intelligence collection and adaptive selling: examining the role of learning orientation as an enabler; evaluate whether its customers, intervention and outcome match your own context.
Social-media use affected performance through competitive-intelligence collection and adaptive selling; perceived usefulness was not significantly related to use; intelligence collection supported adaptive selling.
Use this study as a bounded example related to social media technology use and salesperson performance: a two study examination of the role of salesperson behaviors, characteristics, and training; evaluate whether its customers, intervention and outcome match your own context.
Social-media technology affected relationship and objective sales performance through salesperson behaviors/characteristics; technology without training did not produce the best results, making training critical.
Use this study as a bounded example of unintended consequences of selling b2b digital subscription add-ons for customer onboarding; assess whether its population, intervention and outcome match your own decision.
More add-on services significantly decreased onboarding-stage retention, and leaner communication channels aggravated attrition. Perceived complexity was identified as the likely mechanism. Add-on bundling had a positive effect on post-onboarding retention, and the negative onboarding effect was not uniform across add-on types.
Use as a mechanism or sales-process design reference. Validate the relationship in your own deal size, buying committee and sales cycle.
Tests technology-acceptance antecedents for sales-force technology use; the publisher page labels it an empirical investigation.
Use as a mechanism or sales-process design reference. Validate the relationship in your own deal size, buying committee and sales cycle.
Examines conditions under which firms outsource sales processes; results distinguish outsourcing effects from internal sales-force governance.
Use as a mechanism or sales-process design reference. Validate the relationship in your own deal size, buying committee and sales cycle.
Documents differences between sales-force and management perceptions of SFA; the title and publisher record explicitly identify the comparative empirical focus.
Use as a mechanism or sales-process design reference. Validate the relationship in your own deal size, buying committee and sales cycle.
Tests antecedents and consequences of CRM acceptance in the sales force, linking acceptance with downstream sales-force outcomes.
Use the study to frame a pricing or packaging hypothesis and identify outcomes to measure; estimate effects with your own customer mix and willingness-to-pay evidence.
Analyzes motivational mechanisms affecting industrial sales-force participation in forecasting.
Use as a mechanism or sales-process design reference. Validate the relationship in your own deal size, buying committee and sales cycle.
Identifies individual, organizational, and environmental factors executives associate with sales-force obsolescence.
Use as a mechanism or sales-process design reference. Validate the relationship in your own deal size, buying committee and sales cycle.
Examines sales-force performance under behavior-based sales management, providing evidence on management-process/performance association.
Use as a mechanism or sales-process design reference. Validate the relationship in your own deal size, buying committee and sales cycle.
Provides empirical evidence on technology’s role in the sales force and implications for managing technology use.
Use as a mechanism or sales-process design reference. Validate the relationship in your own deal size, buying committee and sales cycle.
Evaluates how revenue-management ideas can be applied to improve B2B sales-force productivity.
Use as a mechanism or sales-process design reference. Validate the relationship in your own deal size, buying committee and sales cycle.
Tests whether aligned management commitment affects salesperson adoption of SFA.
Use as a mechanism or sales-process design reference. Validate the relationship in your own deal size, buying committee and sales cycle.
Tests whether SFA relates to relationship quality and performance through learning and selling behaviors.
Use to frame a lifecycle hypothesis and define customer-level outcomes; check whether the study's market and retention horizon resemble yours.
Links big-data analytical intelligence capabilities to CRM performance and tests the proposed capability relationships.
Use as a mechanism or sales-process design reference. Validate the relationship in your own deal size, buying committee and sales cycle.
Identifies contingencies under which outsourcing the sales force for new products is advantageous.
Use as a mechanism or sales-process design reference. Validate the relationship in your own deal size, buying committee and sales cycle.
Tests training and support as moderators of the SFA-adoption/performance relationship rather than assuming a direct effect.
Use as a mechanism or sales-process design reference. Validate the relationship in your own deal size, buying committee and sales cycle.
Traditional collaborative filtering reduced aggregate sales diversity; purchase-based CF had larger effects than view-based; niche items gained absolutely but lost share.
Use as a mechanism or sales-process design reference. Validate the relationship in your own deal size, buying committee and sales cycle.
Publisher abstract reports development of a predictive churn model and implementation in a field experiment; the study evaluates implementation effectiveness, not merely predictive accuracy.
Use to shape a locally controlled channel or message test; account for audience, timing and attribution limits before reallocating budget.
Targeting customers affected the behavior of their social connections, showing CRM campaign effects beyond directly targeted customers.
Use as a behavioral mechanism or experiment-design reference, not a direct forecast for a SaaS funnel.
Complaint-handling satisfaction was determined by distributive, procedural and interactional justice; the study provides evidence that recovery evaluations shape relationship outcomes.
Use it as a sales-process or B2B mechanism reference. Validate the relationship in your deal size, buying committee and sales cycle.
Both traditional and social earned media affect marketplace activity; social earned media’s greater frequency can make its cumulative effect important despite smaller reach per event.
Use it as a sales-process or B2B mechanism reference. Validate the relationship in your deal size, buying committee and sales cycle.
Review quantity, rating, and review content are empirically related to new-product sales; the paper analyzes both numerical ratings and textual review effects.
Use it as a B2B mechanism or sales-process design reference. Validate the relationship in your deal size, buying committee and sales cycle.
Social media and digital tools are used jointly with traditional sales communication, blending the traditional selling steps into three main phases: identifying new opportunities, persuasion and relationship management; follow-up interviews reported increased social-media use.
Use it as a B2B mechanism or sales-process design reference. Validate the relationship in your deal size, buying committee and sales cycle.
Restaurants overall benefit: delivery platforms increase total takeout sales and create positive spillovers to dine-in visits. Effects are heterogeneous: the overall positive effect for fast-food chains is four times that for independent restaurants; platforms substitute for independent restaurants' own takeout but complement chain takeout, while increasing dine-in visits for both. The paper also reports evidence that platform price comparison intensifies competition and reduces independent restaurants' ability to differentiate through premium service/dine-in experience.
Use it as a B2B mechanism or sales-process design reference. Validate the relationship in your deal size, buying committee and sales cycle.
ISP posts are associated with increases in sales and returns, whereas ICP posts are associated with decreases in both. ISP associations with sales and returns are weaker when persuasive content accompanies them; persuasive content attenuates the ICP relationship with returns but not the ICP relationship with sales.
Use it as a B2B mechanism or sales-process design reference. Validate the relationship in your deal size, buying committee and sales cycle.
Information-technology usage significantly affects sales, but effects differ by technology and product. Directed search increases sales of promoted products but decreases sales of nonpromoted products; recommendation-system use increases sales of both; nondirected search has an insignificant effect on online sales.
Use it as a B2B mechanism or sales-process design reference. Validate the relationship in your deal size, buying committee and sales cycle.
Salespeople generally comply with online sales pushes because online adoption frees time for new selling opportunities; post-push effort reflects customers' prior online proclivity and potential, varies over time and by channel, and produces asymmetric carryover, cross-channel and synergistic effects on sales performance.
Treat this as evidence for the specific b2b growth and sales question studied. Compare the setting and sample to your company before changing a growth decision; use a local experiment where the paper does not match your context.
The study links AI exploitation to three managerial capabilities: data-based human capital, social capital for a knowledge-sharing culture, and a transformative AI-positive mindset. These foster AI-integrated knowledge processes at individual, team, and organizational levels. For a founder, use this as a question to test in your own context, not a universal playbook.
Treat this as evidence for the specific b2b growth and sales question studied. Compare the setting and sample to your company before changing a growth decision; use a local experiment where the paper does not match your context.
The paper identifies four pathways: digital skill endowment, marketing ownership of the sales process, strategic implications, and value creation. SEPs improve intra-firm collaboration and customer insight, reduce costs, increase flexibility, and align sales, marketing, and management. For a founder, use this as a question to test in your own context, not a universal playbook.
Treat this as evidence for the specific b2b growth and sales question studied. Compare the setting and sample to your company before changing a growth decision; use a local experiment where the paper does not match your context.
Technology readiness positively relates to ICT and AI-CRM capability; ICT capability positively relates to AI-CRM capability; relationship performance positively relates to social-sustainability performance. ICT capability mediates the technology-readiness/AI-CRM link, and industry dynamism moderates the ICT-capability/AI-CRM link. For a founder, use this as a question to test in your own context, not a universal playbook.
Treat this as evidence for the specific b2b growth and sales question studied. Compare the setting and sample to your company before changing a growth decision; use a local experiment where the paper does not match your context.
Defines Relieving, Enabling and Enriching CX value propositions and four archetypical CXM strategies: Champion, Cherry Picker, Minimalist and Fashionista; supplies a four-step managerial guide. For a founder, use this as a question to test in your own context, not a universal playbook.
Treat this as evidence for the specific b2b growth and sales question studied. Compare the setting and sample to your company before changing a growth decision; use a local experiment where the paper does not match your context.
Buyer engagement depends on supplier-selection criteria, buyer role/readiness and project-specific factors; positive prior attitudes, perceived value and willingness predict co-creation intention. For a founder, use this as a question to test in your own context, not a universal playbook.
Treat this as evidence for the specific b2b growth and sales question studied. Compare the setting and sample to your company before changing a growth decision; use a local experiment where the paper does not match your context.
Social media and a strong online presence were reported to improve brand visibility, client engagement and sales; themes included digital presence and relationship building. For a founder, use this as a question to test in your own context, not a universal playbook.
Treat this as evidence for the specific b2b growth and sales question studied. Compare the setting and sample to your company before changing a growth decision; use a local experiment where the paper does not match your context.
Job-related social-media use improved in-role performance, with online social capital strengthening the effect; its sales-performance effect was indirect through in-role performance. Personal-branding use improved customer-relationship performance. For a founder, use this as a question to test in your own context, not a universal playbook.
Treat an API as an ecosystem product: measure active complementors, connected apps, centrality, and partner value—not only API calls—and budget for security controls.
In this study, Public API adopters grew an additional 38.7% over 16 years relative to similar nonadopters; growth was stronger with more complementors and network centrality. Internal-only API use had no significant effect, while public APIs increased breach risk. Founder use: Treat an API as an ecosystem product: measure active complementors, connected apps, centrality, and partner value—not only API calls—and budget for security controls.
A founder could cautiously pilot employee-selected quota/reward menus in a randomized or phased rollout, tracking revenue quality and retention as well as bookings. Do not assume the observed effects transfer across roles or that self-selection is always superior to a well-designed fixed plan.
Compared with equivalent quota systems, allowing employees to select a goal–reward combination increased sales performance substantially. Effects were larger for employees with highly variable past performance and lower past performance; effects persisted when the scheme was discontinued and were durable when offered again. For a SaaS founder: A founder could cautiously pilot employee-selected quota/reward menus in a randomized or phased rollout, tracking revenue quality and retention as well as bookings. Do not assume the observed effects transfer across roles or that self-selection is always superior to a well-designed fixed plan.
Equip sales with useful social listening and relationship workflows, then measure qualified engagement and opportunity progression.
Studies how salesperson social-media use relates to digital engagement and performance.
Use reviews especially to reduce uncertainty for new categories and first-time users; segment review prompts by customer context.
Review impact is heterogeneous: it is stronger for less popular products and for consumers with less prior product experience.
Make onboarding organizational, secure internal champions, and scope features to firm capacity and industry—not just technical capability.
Management perception, employee involvement and firm size influence CRM implementation; the feature mix implemented also varies with industry and these organizational factors.
Demonstrate concrete workflow value and reduce implementation friction in sales-tool positioning.
Adoption is associated with perceived usefulness and organizational/implementation considerations, emphasizing that CRM value depends on fit and execution.
Build product analytics around the whole lifecycle and connect usage metrics to commercial outcomes.
CRM process capabilities are measurable and relate to firm performance; acquisition, maintenance and termination processes should be managed as a system.
Prioritize collaborative engagement workflows and measurable relationship outcomes over posting features alone.
Social-media technology use contributes to customer relationship performance through customer engagement and social CRM capability.
Balance partnership depth with governance, independent measurement and exit options.
Social capital has an inverted-curvilinear relationship with performance: too little or too much can hurt objectivity and enable opportunism.
Treat readiness, service quality, trust and satisfaction as implementation metrics.
Technological readiness, COVID-related pressure, customer pressure and satisfaction positively affected e-CRM success; satisfaction mediated some effects.