The literature shows some recent calls for an end to 'unaccountable' marketing (Rust et al., 2001; Sheth and Sharma, 2001) and the use of customer lifetime value as an appropriate marketing metric (Rust et al., 2001). Some commentators recommend the application of shareholder value measures to the valuation of customer relationships (Uyemara, 1997; Mariotti, 1996). The thesis evaluates the application of shareholder value measures to the valuation of customers. Shareholder value involves both risk and return; therefore, the thesis argues, the risk of the customer or segment has to be identified before that customer's role in creating shareholder value for an organisation can be assessed. In addition, Relationship Marketing suggests that customer relationships have value in ways that are not easy to capture using traditional customer profitability analysis. The thesis explores different methods of valuing relationship benefits. As a result of the literature review, a model of the total value of the customer is developed which defines the Total Value of the Customer as the lifetime economic value of the customer (customer lifetime value adjusted for risk), plus the value of relationship benefits (Referral and Reference Effects, and Learning and Innovation). The model is operationalized using shareholder value measures and then tested in two collaborative research projects. The research finds that managers in the participating companies do not have good information about the lifetime value of their customer relationships. Evidence of changes in strategy as a result of a better understanding of the value of the customer is found. The research contributes to theory and knowledge through defining and calculating the Total Value of the Customer; demonstrating the application of shareholder value measures to the valuation of customers; finding and measuring relationship benefits measuring customer risk; and finding a link between the value of the customer and targeted marketing strategies.

This research undertakes a contingency theory examination of strategy and cost system alignment based on customer retention and customer profitability analysis. Previous research and consultancy advice has promoted the benefits of a firm following a customer retention strategy. They claim that in order to support the strategy a firm should have a customer profitability analysis system in place. Yet often what is prescribed as good practice is not observed in firms. This inconsistency is explained using contingency theory. Initial qualitative evidence was collected from four industry sites to determine whether the above strategy-cost system alignment was present. An analysis of these findings suggested that the customer retention-customer profitability analysis system relationship was contingent on a range of factors. As a result, a contingent theory of this relationship was developed from the four sites, and this theory was then tested in a survey of 862 people from 431 firms. The survey results provide support for the propositions developed from the qualitative evidence. It is likely that firms will follow multiple operational marketing strategies and have cost management systems in place to support those strategies. Although customer retention is a very important operational marketing strategy, a significant number of firms do not have customer profitability analysis systems in place to support the strategy. Many contingent factors were identified. Customer profitability analysis implementation is dependent on industry type; size; the difficulties involved in determining customer costs; whether the organisation has a champion for the system; the relationship between the marketing and accounting functions in a firm; and the available labour resources to facilitate implementation. Further, it is apparent that customer profitability analysis information is not essential to support a customer retention strategy. Customer revenue information can be substituted and the firms are satisfied with the level of management accounting system support for their operational marketing strategies. However, many respondents see the value of customer revenue, customer cost and customer profitability information, providing opportunities for future design of such systems as well as research into their development.

"Customer Profitability Analysis in the Service Industry" aims to describe the practical application of customer profitability analysis techniques in holding XYZ, which provides ICT services to the hospitality industry. The thesis starts with a theoretical part. It describes several management accounting techniques for measuring customer profitability. The second part of the thesis demonstrates the application of some of these techniques in a real-life environment. Implementing management accounting tools, business processes and changing the accounting data structure are described step by step.

Master thesis "Customer Profitability Analysis Based on Activity Based Costing" describes opportunities of customer profitability analysis and activity based costing management. Theoretical part of the thesis is focused on description of activity based costing, advantages and disadvantages, implementation and use for customer profitability analysis. In the practical part of the thesis I have used theoretical background in trade company E-centrum, a. s. For the company I prepared complete customer profitability analysis and activity based costing model. Based on the analysis I suggested many recommendations for the company.

The main goal of this master thesis is to implement a system for performing customer profitability analysis in a consulting company. Implementation of the system is based on concepts that are presented in the theoretical part of this thesis. This thesis also contains discussion about the usability of the activity based costing and of the time driven activity based costing. The theoretical part of this thesis contains an explanation of the customer profitability analysis. This part also presents the activity based costing method and also the time driven activity based costing method. Due to the main focus of this thesis, theoretical part also contains an explanation of specifics of performance management in a consulting company. The practical part of this thesis begins with a description of current conditions in the researched company. This is followed by the implementation of the customer profitability analysis system. This thesis is concluded by performing customer profitability analysis in the researched company.

隨著相關管理技術之發展，準確衡量個別顧客所帶來的利潤已非難事，除此之外，亦有越來越多學者發現大多數企業之利潤其實集中於少部分客戶身上，符合80/20法則，因此本研究乃以一個案銀行內部之授信顧客資料為研究樣本，結合公司內外部相關資訊，探討影響顧客授信利潤高低之因素為何，以幫助企業有效配置行銷資源，作為企業實行客戶關係管理之參考。 在研究變數方面，本研究先針對全部樣本探討顧客交易習性、本身屬性(如年數、規模、獲利能力、成長趨勢、創新程度)、銷售人員特質等對顧客利潤之影響，嗣後再將顧客依行業別與往來期間作一區隔，探討不同行業別與往來期間之顧客利潤影響因素是否相同。 本研究研究結果顯示，顧客交叉銷售數、年數、獲利能力、成長趨勢、創新程度等皆會對顧客利潤產生影響。在短期內，僅交叉銷售會對顧客造成影響，然在中長期，除了交叉銷售數外，顧客之年數、獲利能力、成長趨勢、創新程度等皆會對顧客利潤產生影響，由此可知，在短期內，個案公司所採行之交叉銷售策略係增進顧客利潤最有效之方式，然就中長期而言，仍須考量顧客本身的屬性(如年數、規模、獲利能力、成長趨勢、創新程度)與本身銷售人員之特質，因此，就長期而言，選擇正確之顧客與培育適當的銷售人員亦為增加顧客利潤之關鍵因素。然在行業別方面，非高科技業顧客之模式並不顯著，顯示非高科技業顧客利潤影響因素可能仍受其他因素影響，值得後續研究進一步探討。 / With the development of related management technology, it’s easier for business to measure the customer profitability now. In addition, there’re more and more researchers indicate that in most company the profitability are concentrated on a few customers, which is according to the 80/20 rule. Accordingly, this research combines internal and external information from one bank in Taiwan to analyze the factors that affect the loan customer profitability in that bank. The purpose of this research is try to help business allocate marketing resources effectively, and try to provide for business as a reference to implement CRM. In the respect of variables, at first this research tries to analyze the affection of customer trading style, customer attributes, sales person attributes to customer profitability, after that this research will try to analyze whether the affection factors are the same or not when customers are in different industry and have different transaction period. Finally, this research has found that customer cross-selling number, year, profitability ability, growth rate, innovation degree and sales person have affection on customer profitability. In short-term period, only customer cross-selling number will affect the customer profitability, and in long-term period, in addition to customer cross-selling number, other variables like customer year, profitability ability, growth rate, innovation degree and sales person will also affect customer profitability. It indicates that in short-term period, the cross-selling strategy adopt by the research company is the best most effective way to increase customer profitability. But in long-term, selecting the right customer and training adequate sales employers are also very important factors to increase customer profitability. When taking industry into consideration, this research has found that the variables mentioned above also have affection on the customer profitability in high technology industry, but in non-high technology industry, the statistic model is not significant and could be discuss by further researches.

Bakgrund och problem: Kundlönsamhetsberäkningar görs för att företag ska få kunskap om lönsamheten per kund. Informationen utgör sedan beslutsunderlag för styrning mot ökad total kundlönsamhet. För många företag finns det dock faktorer som inte är möjliga eller svåra att inkludera i en kundlönsamhetsberäkning samtidigt som de påverkar den totala kundlönsamheten. Företagen behöver därmed komplettera beräkningarna med dessa för att få en mer rättvisande kundlönsamhetsanalys som möjliggör styrning utifrån företagets helhetsperspektiv. Svårigheten för företagen är därför hur dessa faktorer ska hanteras och värderas samt användas i företagets styrning. Syfte: Syftet med uppsatsen är att skapa förståelse för hur företag genomför en kundlönsamhetsanalys inkluderande de faktorer som används som komplement till de traditionella kundlönsamhetsberäkningarna samt hur företagen styr utifrån dessa. Metod: För denna studie har en kvalitativ forskningsstrategi tillämpats där en fallstudie har använts. För intervjuerna har en semistrukturerad intervju med öppna frågor använts där en intervjuguide har legat till grund för strukturen på intervjun. Slutsats: Studiens resultat visar att företag anpassar och väljer kalkylmetod för kundlönsamhetsberäkning utifrån verksamheten. De värderar sedan de kompletterande faktorerna till stor del genom kunskap och erfarenhet. Kundlönsamhetsanalyserna används som beslutsunderlag för styrande åtgärder främst avseende förbättring av företagets processer, prioritering av resurser samt påverkan av kundernas beteenden i syfte att uppnå optimal kundlönsamhet för företaget. / Background and problem: Customer profitability calculations are needed for companies to obtain knowledge of the profitability of their customers. The information then constitutes the basis for decision-making for the managing to increase total customer profitability. For many companies there exists some factors which are impossible or difficult to include within a customer profitability calculation, however these factors affect the total customer profitability. Therefore companies need to complement the calculations with these to receive a more accurate customer profitability analysis which makes managing towards the company’s comprehensive view possible. The difficultness for the companies is how these factors should be handled, valued and used within the companies managing. Purpose: The purpose with this paper is to create understanding about how companies fulfill a customer profitability analysis that concludes factors which are used as a compliment for the traditional customer profitability calculations. The study also includes how companies manage their organizations based on the customer profitability analysis. Method: A qualitative study with semi structured interview has been used. An interview guide has been the basis for the structure of the interview. Conclusion: When analyzing the empirical material, we found that companies adjust and choose the calculation method for customer profitability calculations based on how the business is structured. They value the complementary factors mostly through knowledge and experience. The customer profitability analysis are used as a basis for decisions regarding managing actions regarding improvements of the companies processes, priorities of resources and the influence by the customers behavior for the purpose to achieve an optimal customer profitability for the companies.

隨著資訊科技與生產技術大幅進步，以及全球化及自由化下瞬息多變的競爭環境，經營者除了關注企業內部的議題外，亦需了解全球經濟發展趨勢與產業脈動，在競爭者與客戶回應之前，提出有效對策因應，如此才能在激烈的競爭中存續與發展，維持競爭力及提升經營績效。因此，現今企業勝出的核心關鍵不再單純依賴規模與效率，而是如何發揮創意，找出新的競爭定位，並藉助資訊快速運算及不斷增強的商業智慧功能來改善企業本身的經營條件，甚或尋求新的商業模式。 個案公司是一家電子零組件製造與銷售公司，主要產銷連接器、軟性排線及線材組件。和大多數公司一樣，個案公司目前正面臨全球化競爭帶來的挑戰。處於原物料及人力成本持續上漲的壓力，以及面對客戶少量多樣客製化的產品需求與愈趨繁複的出貨要求下，個案公司之產品毛利愈來愈低。為解決這些經營上的問題，個案公司期待運用ERP資訊系統客製「商品計價作業」來反映成本上漲對產品報價的變動，並藉此快速且適度反應到對客戶的報價上，以期提升經營彈性，因應市場變化。 本研究從個案公司為了因應市場變化而建置資訊系統，以期快速且正確的反映產品報價的需求出發，首先針對個案公司，應用企業流程資訊有機體(Process-Wide Information Organism, PWIO)分析模式，重現及檢視個案公司銷售流程，並結合時間導向的作業基礎成本制求算出客戶最終毛利，據此重分類客戶屬性，並提出對應之銷售策略及對資訊系統需求之反思與建議。 關鍵字：企業流程資訊分析模式、顧客利潤分析、時間導向作業基礎成本制度 / Information technology and manufacturing techniques are greatly improved by days. The globalization and liberalization make industrial competition fierce and ever-changing. Under such circumstances, the company managements can not only focus on internal topics but should observe the global economic development trend and also the commercial and industrial variety. They should put forward solution strategies to deal with the responses of competitors and requests of customers. Only then can they keep competition power and enhance the operation profit to continue sustainable operation and development in the sharp competition. Therefore the key success factor today is not to depend on operation scale and efficiency only but to bring creativeness into full play to find the competition advantage of the company. In addition, they should improve management conditions by means of rapid information operation and ever-growing business intelligent features or to create new business model. A case company is a component manufacturing and sales company. Its main products are connectors, flexible flat cable and wire harness. Facing the severe global competition as the others, the company is challenged by margin issue due to increasing cost of raw material and labor, customized products requests with high-mix/ low-volume. To conquer this business issue, the case company plans to utilize ERP to build up the “Product Pricing Program” to re engineer the pricing methodology by reflecting the increased cost in the quotations to customers. The pricing process can enhance the operation efficiency to respond to the variety market changes. To deal with the market changes, the case study is aimed to establish effective information system for the purpose of responding rapidly and precisely to pricing decision. The research reviews and inspects the sales flow of the case company by Process-Wide Information Organism (PWIO). It also combines the time-oriented activity base costing (ABC) to forecast the final gross profit of customers. Based on this, the case company could re-categorize the customer segmentation and put forward related sales strategy and enhancement on the demand of information system. Key words: Process-Wide Information Organism (PWIO); Customer profitability analysis; Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing

要創造顧客價值，首先需瞭解顧客。顧客是企業最重要的資產，企業應掌握該資產之性質與經濟意涵。本研究自此觀點出發，對個案公司之顧客資產提出四大問題：1.可能長期/短期往來客戶分辨及探討可能長期往來客戶是否一定是好客戶2.各區隔客戶的主要消費型態3.各區隔顧客與企業之獲利關係4.各區隔顧客之理財型態。本研究藉由此四大問題，串連時間、獲利與經濟行為構面進行分析與探討。本研究之資料取自某銀行信用卡部門二年期之月顧客資料。 　　本研究之發現說明如下： 　　1.以獲利與時間兩構面為區隔，發現長期往來之客戶不一定是好客戶。可能短期往來客戶亦有極佳之獲利潛能，但可能因為企業未能滿足需求或客戶有交換使用各家信用卡之行為、預算分配情況的影響，致使此類客戶未能成為忠實客戶，管理當局應深入調查這些顧客的行為，以利策略之擬定。 　　2.各區隔間有鮮明之行為特質。各區隔之所注重的消費層次不同，關心的議題可能不同，因此企業在行銷上注重的層面理應不同。 　　3.大多數之客群對獲利有顯著貢獻，顯示出大多數客戶是具有潛在利潤的客戶。 　　4.「一般交易需求者」為個案銀行之主要客戶，屬於極少拖欠帳款，或者是有支出預算之消費者，銀行只能自手續費獲利，因此，日常營運成本可能是關心重點，企業應力求成為此類顧客的主要銀行。 / Customer valuation is becoming a critical element in strategy development. It is built on the notation that the customer is the primary asset of the firm. The firm has a protfolio of customer assets that should be analyzed economically to determine their value to the firm. The four issues in this study relate to (1) identifying possible long-lived or short-lived customers and if those possible long-lived customers are necessarily profitable customers or not; (2) investigating consuming behavior of each segment; (3) understanding the profit relationship between the firm and customers; (4) establising financing behavior of each segment. This study is based on a monthly data from a large retail bank for two years. 　　Bellows are the illustation of the empirical findings in this study： 　　 1. Duration and customer profitability are two good dimensions of segmentation. Long-lived customers are not necessarily profitable customers. Short-lived customers have great potential in profitability, too. The firm may not fulfill their needs. Those customers may be butterflies, i.e., they like to use different banks’credit cards. On the other hand, some customers may have budget for their spending. The firm must investigate this phenomenon deeply, so as to plan their marketing strategy. 　　 2. Each segment concerns about different issues because they have distintive consuming behavior. So, the firm must have different marketing strategies for each segment. 　　 3. There is positive association between customers and the firm's profitability in most of the segments. This reveals that most customers are profitable. 　　 4. Tansistors are the domain customer type of the firm. They usually pay bills in time. Maybe, they have spending budget. The firm receives transation fees only. Under this condition, operation excellence is the key point. The firm must pay great efforts to become the domain bank of their customers.