Claes Fornell

Claes Fornell is an expert on customer satisfaction measurement and asset measurement.

Background

Born and raised in Sweden, Fornell received a Doctorate of Economics in 1976 from the University of Lund, Sweden. In 2009, during the 100-year anniversary of the Stockholm School of Economics, Fornell was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Economics. He also holds honorary professorships from Renmin University (2005) and Tianjin University (2007).

Research and writing

Fornell's research centers on the application of advanced quantitative methods for understanding how to obtain high financial returns and lower risk at the same time. It was the convergence of these interests that led Fornell, in 1994, to found the American Customer Satisfaction Index – a monthly economic indicator of the quality of economic output, as experienced by the users of that output. ACSI is a predictor of consumer spending and economic growth at the macro level, and tracks about 235 individual companies. Individual and company ACSI scores are predictive of company return on investment, net cash flow, and stock returns. The basic ACSI technology, for which Fornell was awarded a US patent (US 8,666,515 B2) in 2014, is now used in more than 16 countries in addition to the United States, including Great Britain, Brazil, Singapore, Sweden and South Korea.

Fornell is the lead author of several articles linking customer satisfaction to stock returns, demonstrating that a portfolio of firms with high ACSI scores consistently outperform the market. Fornell has also written several books. Among them are Consumer Input for Marketing Decisions (Praeger, 1976) and A Second Generation of Multivariate Analysis (Praeger, 1980). His most recent book, The Satisfied Customer: Winners and Losers in the Battle for Buyer Preference (Palgrave Macmillan, 2007), draws on findings from the ACSI as well as his experiences helping companies manage their customer relationships. According to the "International Journal of Research in Marketing,". he is the author of 3 of the 20 most influential papers in marketing science published in the leading academic marketing journals (and to 5 of the top 50) over a 20-year period.