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Marketing analytics deployment mediates analytics culture and analytic skills on firm performance. Top management advocacy has implications on analytical culture, analytical skills, data and IT resources with significant and substantive results. Top management advocacy through analytical culture and marketing analytics deployment fully and partially mediates firm performance.
Keywords: marketing analytics, analytics culture, analytics skills, top management advocacy, mediation
INTRODUCTION
The purpose of this paper is to review Germann et al. 2013 paper titled "Performance implications of deploying marketing analytics" with a focus on mediation testing and replication as it is deemed necessary to illuminate the effects of mediation. In order to achieve these objectives, we present some background information first and then describe the research methodology, mediation hypotheses, findings and its implications and extensions.
The advent of information and communication technologies (ICT) and increasing connectivity has made data collection on consumer behavior more accessible. In such an environment marketing analytics, which Lilien (2011, p. 5) has defined as "technology-enabled and model-supported approach to harness customer and market data to enhance marketing decision making" has significant implications on the performance of a firm.
As the authors of the paper have elucidated increased networked business-to-customer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) transactions, available troves of data, more informed customers and fierce global competition, and the desired outcome on marketing expenditures to improve the profitability of the business concern has significantly increased.
However, there are two conflicting perspectives on the effectiveness of marketing analytics deployment. On one side, there are research findings that correlate deployment of marketing analytics with improved firm performance (McIntyre, 1982; Lodish et al., 1988; Hoch and Schkade, 1996, Kannan et al., 2009), and, on the other side, there are senior level executives with perspectives that render the implication of marketing analytics on firm performance to be marginal.
Furthermore, a McKinsey and Co. study has shown that out of 587 senior level executives of large international companies that participated in the study only 10% of these firms utilized marketing analytics regularly (McKinsey and Co., 2009).
However, there are many studies that that shows the specific benefits of sound marketing analytics deployment. Such examples includes Rhenaniaa mail order company that increase its customer base by 55% using marketing analytics (Eisner et al., 2004), Marriott Corporation which used...