Authors

Shan LinFollow

Date of Completion

4-23-2015

Embargo Period

4-22-2017

Keywords

product line positioning strategies, financial performance, cash flow, idiosyncratic risk, branding strategies, brand social engagement, social media, marketing–finance interface

Major Advisor

William Jr. Ross

Associate Advisor

Hongju Liu

Associate Advisor

Joseph Pancras

Field of Study

Business Administration

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy

Open Access

Campus Access

Abstract

Given the importance of quantifying the return on investment of market-based assets, my dissertation examines how different aspects of intangible market-based assets affect firms’ financial performance. Each of our datasets covers more than 90 firms across different industries, and we adopt the widely accepted economic and financial models to estimate marketing and finance metrics of each firm.

Essay 1 provides an empirical investigation of the effects of six product line positioning strategies (high, medium, low, high–medium, medium–low, and high–medium–low) and three primary branding strategies (corporate branding, house-of-brands, and mixed-branding) on firms’ financial performance. This research illustrates that narrower product line positioning strategies are associated with higher cash flow and lower firm idiosyncratic risk. Meanwhile, branding strategies have a significant impact on firms’ cash flow but not idiosyncratic risk. In addition, product line positioning strategy moderates the relationship between branding strategies and cash flow but not the relationship between branding strategies and firm idiosyncratic risk.

Essay 2 examines brand social engagement, a new conceptualization of consumers’ responses to brands’ social media efforts, and its role in translating brand assets into firm value. We propose and test the three dimensions of brand social engagement–Affiliation, Conversation and Responsiveness–and link them to firm financial performance. We find that the three dimensions of brand social engagement are significantly associated with firm financial performance. Moreover, advertising expenditures moderate the relationship between brand social engagement and firm financial performance.

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