This paper develops a simple model of investment by service firms in intangible customer assets, and tests whether the model identifies some critical drivers of firms’ stock returns. Similar to firms with significant research and development (R&D) expenditures, we argue that firms in...

High growth service firms invest resources to acquire and retain customers, creating intangible assets. This paper tests whether investors use customer metrics to value these firms. Using a unique handcollected data set, we show that investors discount the values of high growth service firms if...