American Economic Journal:
Applied Economics
ISSN 1945-7782 (Print) | ISSN 1945-7790 (Online)
Customer Capital Spillovers: Evidence from Sales Managers in International Markets
American Economic Journal: Applied Economics
vol. 16,
no. 4, October 2024
(pp. 404–43)
Abstract
Expanding their customer base is crucial for firms to grow. This paper leverages sales managers' job-to-job transitions to better understand how buyer-seller relationships form. Combining unique French firm-to-firm trade data with matched employer-employee data, we perform an event study analysis that exploits the timing of sales managers' transitions from one firm to another for identification. We find recruiting a sales manager increases by 36 percent the probability to export to the buyers of her former firm. The expansion of the firm's customer base is detrimental to the buyer's former suppliers. Yet business stealing is partial; job-to-job transitions are not zero-sum.Citation
Patault, Bérengère, and Clémence Lenoir. 2024. "Customer Capital Spillovers: Evidence from Sales Managers in International Markets." American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 16 (4): 404–43. DOI: 10.1257/app.20220572Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- D12 Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
- D22 Firm Behavior: Empirical Analysis
- D25 Intertemporal Firm Choice: Investment, Capacity, and Financing
- J62 Job, Occupational, and Intergenerational Mobility; Promotion
- L14 Transactional Relationships; Contracts and Reputation; Networks
- L25 Firm Performance: Size, Diversification, and Scope
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