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製藥廠顧客利潤之決定因素：個案分析
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medium- or large-sized pharmaceutical firms worldwide. In addition, pharmaceutical firms
in Taiwan mainly operate in the domestic market, a relatively small market compared to the
markets of other economies.
Additionally, the customer-profit-contribution determinants of international
pharmaceutical firms operating in the global market could be very different from that of our
case firm. Therefore, examining a large international pharmaceutical firm as a case example
could provide findings relevant to multinational firms.
The second limitation of this study is that we use dummy variable to classify customers
into two classes: contracted vs. non-contracted. However, within the contracted customers
group, contract terms, such as price discount and purchase volume, may vary substantially
across firms. An examination of optimal contracts from both the supplier’s (e.g., a
pharmaceutical firm’s) and the buyer’s (e.g., a hospital’s) perspectives would be a fruitful
research issue for both academics and practitioners.
The third limitation is that this study did not investigate the role of customer relations
personnel and managers on customer profit contribution. Customer relations management is
a labor-intensive task, and therefore the effectiveness of customer relations management is
likely based on the competency of a firm’s customer relations personnel. The research on the
effects of human resources on customer profit contribution could provide valuable strategies
for firms to adjust their human resources policies to enhance customer relations performance.