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Lopo joined the faculty in 2011. Originally from Lisbon, Portugal, he has been in the US since 1994, when he started his "Grand Tour of the Midwest": Ann Arbor, Michigan, Iowa City, Iowa and most recently, Bloomington, Indiana. Originally trained in economics, later on and while working on his MBA, he fully converted to the "dark side" and has since been interested in understanding the relationship between marketing and firm performance, leading him to Ann Arbor, where he eventually earned his Ph.D. in marketing from the University of Michigan. Not surprisingly, his research interests focus on understanding how marketing strategies, investments, and actions (e.g., advertising, customer relationship management, brand strategy, etc.) influence firm performance outcomes (ranging from product market performance to financial performance), and ultimately contribute to shareholder wealth creation. The main goals of his research are to identify generalizable patterns regarding how marketing strategies and actions explain differences in firm performance, and to understand the boundary conditions for these observed patterns. His research addresses complex problems that are often ignored because they are typically difficult to investigate, but nonetheless carry great managerial significance. If marketing as an academic discipline is to have a greater impact on corporate and managerial practices, then understanding when and how strategic marketing investments create superior firm performance and shareholder wealth, is essential. Professor Rego’s research has been published in such outlets as the Journal of Marketing, Marketing Science, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, European Journal of Marketing, Journal of Empirical Generalisations in Marketing, Harvard Business Review, Journal of Research in Marketing, and Marketing Science Institute Working Paper Series.
PhD, Marketing, University of Michigan Business School, 2000
MBA, Marketing and Strategy, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, 1993
BS, Economics, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, 1991
Professional Experience
Associate Professor of Marketing, Indiana University, 2011-present
Associate Professor of Marketing, Tippie College of Business, University of Iowa, 2010-11
Assistant Professor of Marketing, Tippie College of Business, University of Iowa, 2003-10
Visiting Assistant Professor of Marketing, Tippie College of Business, University of Iowa, 2001-03
Adjunct Lecturer, Tippie College of Business, University of Iowa, 2000
Selected Publications
Feng, H., Morgan, N. A., and Rego, L. (2020). The Impact of Unprofitable Customer Management Strategies on Shareholder Value. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 48(2), 246–269.
Abstract
A significant proportion of many firms’ customers are unprofitable. The question of how unprofitable customers should be managed has recently received increasing research attention from the customer and manager angles, but the effects of unprofitable customer management (UCM) strategies on shareholder value is unknown. Using an event study methodology, we examine stock market reactions to disclosures of firms’ UCM strategy decisions. Results from a sample of UCM strategy disclosure events reveal an average short-term abnormal stock return of −0.53%. Drawing on signaling theory logic, we explore a number of signal (UCM strategy), signaler (firm engaging in UCM), and signaling environment characteristics that may affect the shareholder value effects of firms’ UCM approaches. Our analyses show that investors respond more favorably to indirect UCM strategies than to direct customer divestment strategies. We also find that particular types of indirect UCM strategy approaches and strategic intent in UCM strategy adoption, stronger firm marketing capabilities and, and positive publicity can help mitigate the generally negative abnormal stock returns observed. Overall, our findings have important implications for marketing theory and provide actionable new insights for managers into how to approach the management of unprofitable customers.
Feng, H., Morgan, N. A., and Rego, L. L. (2017). Firm Capabilities and Growth: The Moderating Role of Market Conditions. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 45(1), 76-92.
Feng, H., Morgan, N. A., and Rego, L. L. (2015). Marketing Department Power and Firm Performance. Journal of Marketing, 79(5), 1-20.
Abstract
This study empirically investigates marketing department power in U.S. firms throughout 1993–2008 and assesses its impact on firm performance. Using a new objective measure of marketing department power and a cross-industry sample of 612 public firms in the United States, the results reveal that, in general, marketing department power increased during this time period. Furthermore, the analyses show that a powerful marketing department enhances firms' longer-term future total shareholder returns beyond its positive effect on firms' short-term return on assets (ROA). The findings also reveal that a firm's long-run market-based-asset-building and short-run market-based- asset-leveraging capabilities partially mediate the effect of a firm's marketing department power on its longer-term shareholder value performance and fully mediate the effect on its short-term ROA performance. This research provides new insights for marketing scholars and managers with regard to both marketing's influence within the firm and how investments in building a powerful marketing department affect firm performance.
Billett, M. T., Jiang, Z., and Rego, L. L. (2014). Glamour Brands and Glamour Stocks. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 107(Part B), 744–759.
Rego, L. L., Morgan, N. A., and Fornell, C. (2013). Reexamining the Market Share-Customer Satisfaction Relationship. Journal of Marketing, 77(5), 1-20.
Wiles, M., Morgan, N. A., and Rego, L. L. (2012). The Effect of Brand Acquisition and Disposal on Stock Returns. Journal of Marketing, 76(1), 38-58.
Jung, S., Gruca, T. S., and Rego, L. L. (2010). Excess Loyalty in CPG Markets: A Comprehensive Examination. Journal of Empirical Generalisations in Marketing Science,13(1), 1-13.
Abstract
Customer loyalty is a key concern of marketing managers due to its potential impact on brand and firm performance. Share of category requirements (SCR) is one of the most widely used (and available) metrics of behavioural loyalty. We replicate existing research indication that the Dirichlet model is an accurate predictor of a brand's SCR using a broad set of brands and categories in consumer packaged goods (CPG) markets across multiple retial channels in the United States. However, systematic deviations between the observed SCR and that predicted by the Dirichlet benchmark (i.e. "excess loyalty") remain. Excess loyalty is positively related to market share in most CPG categories (86%), a circumstance labelled by some authors as Triple Jeopardy. A cross-category analysis suggests that excess loyalty is significantly influenced by a brand's market share and average purchase volume while measures of the brand's marketing mix provide comparatively little explanatory power. By better understanding the drivers of excess loyalty, managers can more accurately evaluate a brand's performance with respect to SCR, a key behavioural loyalty metric.
Rego, L. L., Billett, M. T., and Morgan, N. A. (2009). Customer-Based Brand Equity and Firm Risk. Journal of Marketing,73(6), 47-60.
Abstract
Investors and managers evaluate potential investments in terms of risk and return. Research has focused on linking marketing activities and resource deployments with returns but has largely neglected marketing's role in determining risk. Yet the theoretical literature asserts that investments in market-based assets, such as brands, should lead to reductions in firm risk. Adopting risk measures that are well established in the finance literature, the authors use credit ratings to capture debt-holder risk and the standard deviation of stock returns to measure equity-holder risk, which they then decompose into systematic and unsystematic equity risk. The authors examine the impact of consumer-based brand equity (CBBE) on firm risk using data covering 252 firms from EquiTrend, COMPUSTAT, and the Center for Research in Security Prices over the 2000-2006 period. They find that a firm's CBBE is associated with firm risk and explains variance in the risk measures beyond that explained by existing finance models (i.e., it has "risk relevance"). They also find that CBBE has a stronger role in predicting firm-specific unsystematic risk than systematic risk. The results have clear economic significance and suggest that managers should make brand management part of the firm's risk management strategy and protect or even increase CBBE investments during periods of economic uncertainty.
Morgan, N. A., and Rego, L. L. (2009). Brand Portfolio Strategy and Firm Performance. Journal of Marketing, 73(1), 59-74.
Abstract
Most large firms operating in consumer markets own and market more than one brand (i.e. they have a brand portfolio). Although firms make corporate-level strategic decisions regarding their brand portfolio, little is known about whether or how a firm's brand portfolio strategy is linked to its business performance. Using data from the American Customer Satisfaction Index and other secondary sources, the authors examine the impact of the scope, competition, and positioning characteristics of brand portfolios on the marketing and financial performance of 72 large publicly traded firms operating in consumer markets over ten years (from 1994 to 2003). Controlling for several industry and firm characteristics, the authors analyze the relationship between five specific brand portfolio characteristics (number of brands owned, number of segments in which they are marketed, degree to which the brands in the firm's portfolio compete with one another, and consumer perceptions of the quality and price of the brands in the firm's portfolio) and firms' marketing effectiveness (consumer loyalty and market share), marketing efficiency (ratio of advertising spending to sales and ratio of selling, general and administrative expense to sales), and financial performance (Tobin's q, cash flow, and cash flow variability). They find that each of these five brand portfolio characteristics explains significant variance in five or more of the seven aspects of firms' marketing and financial performance examined.
Pingitore, G., Morgan, N. A., Rego, L. L., Giglotti, A., and Meyers, J. (2007). The Single Question Trap: The Net Promoter Score Has Limitations in Predicting Financial Performance. Marketing Research,19(2), 9-13.
Abstract
This article examines the strengths and limitations of the net promoter score (NPS) concept from a practitioner's perspective. The data show that the scaling of the intention-to-recommend question is not critical and that the NPS is not the only net customer feedback metric that correlates with financial performance and loyalty scales from which they are computed.
Morgan, N. A. and Rego, L. L. (2006). The Value of Different Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty Metrics in Predicting Business Performance. Marketing Science, 25(5), 426-439.
Gruca, T. S., and Rego, L. L. (2005). Customer Satisfaction, Cash Flow, and Shareholder Value. Journal of Marketing,69(3), 115-130.
Abstract
In this article, the authors strengthen the chain of effects that link customer satisfaction to shareholder value by establishing the link between satisfaction and two characteristics of future cash flows that determine the value of the firm to shareholders: growth and stability. Using longitudinal American Customer Satisfaction Index and COMPUSTAT data and hierarchical Bayesian estimation, the authors find that satisfaction creates shareholder value by increasing future cash flow growth and reducing its variability. They test the stability of findings across several firm and industry characteristics, and they assess the robustness of the results using multimeasure and multimethod estimation.
Dholakai, U. M., and Rego, L. L. (1998). What Makes Commercial Web Pages Popular? An Empirical Investigation of Web Page Effectiveness. European Journal of Marketing,32(7-8), 724-736.
Abstract
There are two main objectives of the paper. First, in a systematic and statistically rigorous manner, we attempt to descriptively document the types and nature of marketing information on commercial home-pages, with a view to identifying the major objectives of a contemporary commercial Web sites that predominate the Web. Using Resnik and Stern's "information content" paradigm, we evaluate the informativeness of commercial home pages. Second, we attempt to empirically examine various important factors of commercial home-pages that lead to increased visits, or hit-rates. The identification of hit-rate determinants is likely to be of great value, both to Web page designers and to the many small and large firms seeking to establish their presence on the Web.
