Retention Metrics As Interpretive Signals : Strategic Decision Making Through Managerial Sensemaking

Sammanfattning

The study examines how marketing managers in subscription-based organizations interpretmarketing retention metrics and how these interpretations correspond with wider professionaldiscourse. Prior research has largely focused on analytical evaluation rather than how managersunderstand and generate meaning from performance metrics. Therefore, this study employs aninterpretative approach in order to investigate how meaning is constructed around retentionmetrics within performance marketing.The study utilizes a qualitative approach, combining semi-structured interviews withperformance marketing professionals from Swedish subscription-based companies alongsidelarger industry discourse. Combining these two separate sources enables the study to understandmanagerial experiences within broader narratives. Through utilizing semiotic analysis andsensemaking theory, the research applies thematic analysis to investigate how retention metricsare conceptualized and transformed into strategic actions.The study’s findings suggest that retention metrics are not interpreted in isolation, instead, theyact as context-dependent signals demanding active managerial interpretations. In addition,marketing managers often face inconsistent and unclear performance results, requiring them tobe involved in a continuous sensemaking process in order to produce interpretations and supportstrategic decisions. Thus, through rethinking retention metrics as interpretative signs, this studycontributes to marketing performance literature, while also integrating sensemaking theory intodata-based marketing environments.