Understanding the relationship between marketing analytics, customer agility, and customer satisfaction: A longitudinal perspective.

Abstract

Shifting towards a more data-driven culture is a key antecedent of business success in today's digital era. Previous research has paid attention to exploring the influence of marketing analytics on business performance, and rarely examined how the use of marketing analytics influences customer agility and satisfaction. According to the dynamic capabilities view and using previous studies, we developed a conceptual framework to explore the effect of marketing analytics use on customer agility and customer satisfaction. In Study 1, we utilised cross-sectional data collected from 468 managers from various industries. In study 2, we employed longitudinal data in a three-wave longitudinal utilising a cross-lagged panel model. Study 1 indicated that data acquisition and tool acquisition are key drivers in adopting marketing analytics. Marketing analytics use has stronger effect on customer agility when market turbulence is high. They also revealed that the influence of customer agility on customer satisfaction in such conditions is stronger. Study 2 revealed that marketing analytics use at time point T1 has a significant and positive influence on customer agility at time point T2, while customer agility at time point T2 has a significant and positive influence on customer satisfaction at time point T3. These findings indicate strong temporal effects between marketing analytics use, customer agility, and customer satisfaction. The findings suggest that researchers should look beyond direct effects of marketing analytics use and shift their attention on how a marketing analytics can be leveraged to enable and support dynamic capabilities and customer satisfaction.