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The dynamic relationship between investments in brand equity and firm profitability: Evidence using trademark registrations

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  • Dirk Crass
  • Dirk Czarnitzki
  • Andrew A Toole

Abstract

Most marketing practitioners and scholars agree that marketing assets such as brand equity significantly contribute to a firm’s financial performance. In this paper, we model brand equity as an unobservable stock that results from up to thirty years of past brand-related investment flows. Using firm-specific trademarks as investment proxies, our results show a significant long-run impact on financial performance. The dynamic profile of brand-related investments has an inverted-U shape that reaches its peak after eleven years. On average, it takes four years before brand related investments show a positive return, and investments older than nineteen years show no significant impact. For the median trademarking firm, brand equity contributes 265,000 Euro to annual profits.

Suggested Citation

  • Dirk Crass & Dirk Czarnitzki & Andrew A Toole, 2016. "The dynamic relationship between investments in brand equity and firm profitability: Evidence using trademark registrations," Working Papers of Department of Management, Strategy and Innovation, Leuven 526330, KU Leuven, Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB), Department of Management, Strategy and Innovation, Leuven.
    • Handle: RePEc:ete:msiper:526330
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    Cited by:

    1. Bin Yang & Tao Yuan, 2022. "Trademark and IPO underpricing," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 51(1), pages 271-296, March.
    2. Marco Grazzi & Chiara Piccardo & Cecilia Vergari, 2020. "Concordance and complementarity in IP instruments," Industry and Innovation, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(7), pages 756-788, August.
    3. Fabio Gaetano Santeramo & Roberto Manno & Marco Tappi & Emilia Lamonaca, 2022. "Trademarks and Territorial Marketing: Retrospective and Prospective Analyses of the trademark Prodotti di Qualità," Economia agro-alimentare, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 24(1), pages 1-37.
    4. Oleksii Lyulyov & Tetyana Pimonenko & Alfonso Infante-Moro & Andrew Zimbroff & Yevheniia Ziabina, 2024. "The Role of Visual Branding in Driving Investment Attractiveness in the Digitalisation Era: Psychophysiological Data Analysis," Virtual Economics, The London Academy of Science and Business, vol. 7(4), pages 7-29, December.
    5. Jasper Grashuis, 2019. "The impact of brand equity on the financial performance of marketing cooperatives," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 35(2), pages 234-248, April.
    6. Hsu, Po-Hsuan & Li, Fengfei & Nozawa, Yoshio, 2025. "Options trading, managerial risk-taking, and brand development," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).
    7. Raghda Abdellatif Abdelkhalik Elsayed, 2023. "The effect of investment in the brand value chain on profitability and market value of the firm: lesson of success taken from Amazon," Future Business Journal, Springer, vol. 9(1), pages 1-17, December.
    8. Roth, Felix & Rammer, Christian, 2025. "Intangible Assets and Productivity at the Firm Level: R&D versus non-R&D Intangibles," Hamburg Discussion Papers in International Economics 20, University of Hamburg, Department of Economics.
    9. Vincent Jerald R. Ramos & Sarah Lynne S. Daway-Ducanes, 2025. "Nonlinearities in the Intellectual Property-Manufacturing Growth Nexus in the Post-TRIPS Era: Evidence from a Dynamic Panel Analysis," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 16(2), pages 10164-10194, June.
    10. Po‐Hsuan Hsu & Hai‐Ping Hui & Hsiao‐Hui Lee & Kevin Tseng, 2022. "Supply chain technology spillover, customer concentration, and product invention," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(2), pages 393-417, April.
    11. Kyriakos Drivas, 2021. "Which travels farther? Knowledge or rivalry?," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 67(2), pages 299-333, October.
    12. Pankaj C. Patel, 2024. "The impact of trademark intensity on firm performance: Unraveling the role of product market competition, total factor productivity, and SG&A efficiency," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 45(6), pages 3942-3958, September.
    13. David C. Mauer & Natalia Villatoro & Yilei Zhang, 2022. "Brand equity and corporate debt structure," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(7-8), pages 1077-1112, July.
    14. Xiao, Yangao & Han, Nianchen & Li, Rui & Ran, Huaqing & Zhou, Shihao & Tong, Tony W., 2024. "Trademarks and firm market value: Evidence from new trademark-firm linked data in China," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 53(2).
    15. Chen, I-Ju & Hsu, Po-Hsuan & Wang, Yanzhi, 2022. "Staggered boards and product innovations: Evidence from Massachusetts State Bill HB 5640," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(4).
    16. Zou, Ying & Li, Jianxin & Lai, Shufang & Li, Min, 2025. "The effect of exploratory trademark strategy on corporate cash holdings," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    17. Zou, Ying & Li, Jianxin & Wu, Tonglin & Chen, Sicen, 2024. "Does exploratory trademark strategy affect the cost of debt financing? Evidence from China," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 96(PC).
    18. Justus Baron & Cher Li & Shukhrat Nasirov, 2019. "Why do R&D-intensive firms participate in standards organizations? The role of patents and product-market position," Discussion Papers 2019-16, University of Nottingham, GEP.
    19. Dirk Crass, 2020. "Which firms use trademarks? Firm-level evidence from Germany on the role of distance, product quality and innovation," Industry and Innovation, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(7), pages 730-755, August.
    20. Xinghua Deng & Ran Jing & Zheng Liang, 2020. "Trade liberalisation and domestic brands: Evidence from China's accession to the WTO," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(8), pages 2237-2262, August.
    21. Naveen Kumar & Liangfei Qiu & Subodha Kumar, 2022. "A Hashtag Is Worth a Thousand Words: An Empirical Investigation of Social Media Strategies in Trademarking Hashtags," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 33(4), pages 1403-1427, December.
    22. Benjamin Azembila Asunka & Zhiqiang Ma & Mingxing Li & Nelson Amowine & Oswin Aganda Anaba & Haoyang Xie & Weijun Hu, 2021. "Analysis of the causal effects of imports and foreign direct investments on indigenous innovation in developing countries," International Journal of Emerging Markets, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 17(5), pages 1315-1335, January.
    23. Eunkyung Lee & Ji-Hern Kim & Chang Seop Rhee, 2021. "Effects of Marketing Decisions on Brand Equity and Franchise Performance," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-15, March.

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    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • O31 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives
    • O34 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Intellectual Property and Intellectual Capital

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