Brand actions and financial consequences: a review of key findings and directions for future research

The brand-finance interface has been an important area of research in marketing for over three decades. Using the brand-value chain framework as a conceptual foundation, we review the literature that links core brand-related actions to stock market outcomes and accounting-based performance metrics and, more importantly, capture what has been learned collectively. We classify brand actions that have been examined in prior research by their cause (proactive vs. reactive) and scope (strategic vs. tactical) and describe their impacts on various financial performance metrics (e.g., stock returns, Tobin’s q), emphasizing key mediators and moderators influencing the process. We then utilize this framework to identify gaps or ambiguities in prior research findings and suggest research questions to help advance our understanding of the financial value implications of brand-related actions.