Does customer information usage improve a firm's performance in business-to-business markets?

This study investigates how different ways of using customer information affects a firm's performance in business-to-business markets. This study focuses on two different types of information usages, action-oriented and knowledge-enhancing information usage. Results from Partial Least Squares analysis show that action-oriented customer information usage, direct information usage, contributes to customer performance, but not directly to business performance. Furthermore, the findings indicate that the extent of customer information collected within a company and the sharing of this information improves both direct and indirect customer information usages. Implications for managers and avenues for further research are discussed. ► We study two types of customer information usages in business companies. ► Direct customer information usage has a positive effect on customer performance. ► Amount of information collected and sharing it contributes to better usage of customer information.