By Leila Ugincius

New research from Virginia Commonwealth University challenges the long-held business assumption that companies perform best when both customers and employees are highly satisfied.

In today’s investment landscape, where social media amplifies corporate signals and retail investors play an outsized role, companies with imbalanced satisfaction — favoring customers over employees or vice versa — can actually be more attractive to investors, said César Zamudio, Ph.D., associate professor of marketing in the VCU School of Business.

“With customer satisfaction at its lowest point in two decades, this study raises critical questions,” Zamudio said. “Are companies deliberately managing stakeholder satisfaction to boost share prices? Could social media visibility be a new form of financial leverage? And what does this mean for firms trying to balance long-term sustainability with short-term investor appeal?”

The recent study he led – “Old Signals, New Era: Reconsidering How Customer Satisfaction and Employee Satisfaction Impact Shareholder Wealth was published in the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science. It provides new insights for executives, investors and policymakers about how firms should navigate today’s volatile, perception-driven stock market.

How investors interpret customer and employee satisfaction in the era of social media and digital investing has fundamentally shifted. Previously, balance between the two was seen as a hallmark of business stability and strong performance. Now, an emerging class of retail investors that use electronic trading platforms such as Robinhood are more attracted to firms that show clear trade-offs in how they prioritize stakeholders.

“The ubiquity of social media, combined with an appetite for risk and explosive growth, means these investors may actively seek out imbalanced stocks — making such imbalances more beneficial for firm value,” Zamudio said.

This research helps explain why some companies seem to “pick a side” between customers and employees, rather than trying to satisfy both equally. In an era where retail investors have more influence and social media amplifies all messages, the business strategies we see today are being shaped by forces beyond just profit. They’re responding to how different groups of people — workers, customers, investors — interact in an increasingly digital, fast-moving economy.

“Investors and executives alike need to understand that in this new world, corporate success is no longer just about performance,” Zamudio said. “It’s also about perception.”