Marketing Spending to Firm Value: A Systematic Literature Review of Brand Equity as a Strategic Mechanism in Pharmaceutical Firms
DOI:
https://doi.cibangsa.org/DOI-2026-352Keywords:
promotional accountability, intangible assets, shareholder returns, healthcare branding, regulatory legitimacyAbstract
Pharmaceutical firms invest heavily in professional promotion, consumer communication, digital engagement, and corporate branding, yet the financial consequences of these expenditures remain difficult to isolate. This study systematically reviews how marketing spending contributes to firm value and examines brand equity as the principal strategic mechanism connecting expenditure with shareholder outcomes. A structured integrative review was conducted using SPAR-4-SLR and PRISMA principles. Forty-five substantive publications were synthesized from marketing, finance, branding, and pharmaceutical research, supported by five methodological sources. The evidence shows that marketing spending rarely creates firm value as a simple contemporaneous expense-to-return relationship. Its contribution is stronger when repeated and credible communication accumulates into brand awareness, perceived quality, differentiation, trust, and loyalty. These brand assets improve revenue growth, pricing power, cash-flow persistence, resilience, and capital-market expectations while reducing demand volatility and selected forms of firm risk. In pharmaceutical markets, however, the mechanism depends on clinical evidence, regulatory legitimacy, product life-cycle stage, and coordination across patients, prescribers, payers, regulators, and distributors. Excessive or poorly substantiated promotion can weaken trust and destroy value. The study proposes an evidence-based spending-brand equity-firm value framework and a research agenda for longitudinal mediation tests, portfolio-level measurement, and cross-country regulatory comparison. Managers should evaluate marketing through brand-equity and risk-adjusted value metrics rather than short-term sales response alone.References
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