Customer-Base Concentration, Profitability, and the Relationship Life Cycle
利用供应商-客户关系数据，提出关系生命周期假说：客户集中度与盈利的关系在关系早期为负，随关系成熟转为正，早期亏损企业未在Patatoukas (2012)中研究，但市场对客户集中度增加的反应类似，并发现技术共享这一无形收益随关系成熟而增加。
ABSTRACT Using a recently expanded dataset on supplier-customer links, we introduce a dynamic relationship life-cycle hypothesis. We hypothesize that the relation between customer-base concentration and profitability is significantly negative in the early years of the relationship, but becomes positive as the relationship matures. The key driver of this dynamic is the customer-specific investments that the relationship entails. These investments result in larger fixed costs, greater operating leverage, and a higher probability of losses early in the relationship, but can significantly benefit the firm as the relationship matures. Although many of these money-losing firms in early-stage relationships were not studied in Patatoukas (2012), we find a market reaction to increases in customer concentration similar to that in his paper. This result provides powerful confirmatory evidence of the value of customer concentration. We document one of the intangible benefits of customer concentration, technology sharing, and show how this benefit increases as the relationship matures. JEL Classifications: L25; M41; G31; G33.