From Brand Trust to Market Value: How Marketing Capability Shapes Financial Performance in Pharmaceutical Firms
DOI:
https://doi.cibangsa.org/DOI-2026-260Keywords:
Market-Based Assets, Relationship Marketing, Intangible Investment, Regulatory Credibility, Shareholder ValueAbstract
Pharmaceutical firms invest heavily in market sensing, scientific communication, channel management, customer engagement, and brand development, yet the financial conversion of these activities remains insufficiently integrated in the literature. This study develops a trust-centered framework explaining how marketing capability is translated into financial performance and market value in pharmaceutical firms. A theory-building integrative literature review synthesizes 49 peer-reviewed and seminal sources spanning marketing capability, relationship marketing, brand trust, market-based assets, corporate finance, and pharmaceutical management. The synthesis identifies six complementary capability dimensions: market sensing, evidence-based brand communication, customer and healthcare-professional engagement, channel integration, analytics-enabled personalization, and reputation-risk governance. These capabilities create financial value primarily by strengthening brand trust, which lowers perceived risk, supports demand stability, improves customer retention, reduces vulnerability to negative information, and enhances pricing and portfolio resilience. The framework proposes that marketing capability affects financial performance both directly and indirectly through brand trust, while financial performance transmits these effects to market value. The study contributes by connecting consumer-level trust mechanisms with accounting and capital-market outcomes in a highly regulated, information-asymmetric industry. It concludes that pharmaceutical marketing should be governed as a strategic intangible investment rather than treated solely as a promotional expense, and it offers an empirical agenda for testing the sequential pathway from capability to trust, performance, and valuation.References
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