In today's highly competitive digital landscape, Customer Experience (CX) has emerged as a critical differentiator and a key driver of sustainable growth for technology companies. For growth-stage firms, strategic capital allocation towards CX infrastructure is paramount, yet often unstructured due to resource constraints and the complex, intangible nature of CX benefits. This article proposes a comprehensive capital allocation framework designed to guide growth-stage tech companies in making informed investment decisions for their CX infrastructure. The framework integrates principles of CX maturity assessment, customer value mapping, risk-based ROI projection, and strategic prioritization to optimize capital deployment. By systematically evaluating current capabilities, linking CX improvements to measurable business outcomes, and prioritizing initiatives based on strategic alignment and potential return, the proposed framework aims to enhance customer engagement, foster loyalty, and ultimately drive sustainable firm performance. The discussion highlights the framework's practical implications, addresses potential challenges, and suggests avenues for future research in this evolving domain.

Capital allocation, customer experience, growth-stage firms

Vovk, O., Kravchenko, M., Popelo, O., Tulchynska, S., & Derhaliuk, M. (2021). Modeling the choice of the innovation and investment strategy for the implementation of modernization potential. WSEAS transactions on systems and control, 16, 430-438.

Villani, I. (2018). Transform Customer Experience: How to achieve customer success and create exceptional CX. John Wiley & Sons.

Doherty, E., Carcary, M., Conway, G., & Crowley, C. (2017, September). Customer experience management (CXM) Development of a conceptual model for the digital organization. In ECISM 2017 11th European Conference on Information Systems Management (p. 103). Academic Conferences and Publishing Limited.

Lemon, K. N., & Verhoef, P. C. (2016). Understanding customer experience throughout the customer journey. Journal of Marketing, 80(6), 69-96.

The state of customer care in 2022, McKinsey, online. https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/operations/our-insights/the-state-of-customer-care-in-2022

Perold, A. F. (2005). Capital allocation in financial firms. Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, 17(3), 110-118.

State of the AI Connected Customer, salesforce, online. https://www.salesforce.com/resources/research-reports/state-of-the-connected-customer/

Mun, J. (2020). Risk-based ROI, Capital budgeting, and portfolio optimization in the Department of Defense.

Kumar, V., Aksoy, L., Donkers, B., Venkatesan, R., Wiesel, T., & Tillmanns, S. (2010). Undervalued or overvalued customers: Capturing total customer engagement value. Journal of Service Research, 13(3), 297-310.

Homburg, C., Jozić, D., & Kuehnl, C. (2017). Customer experience management: toward implementing an evolving marketing concept. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 45, 377-401.

Rust, R. T., Lemon, K. N., & Zeithaml, V. A. (2004). Return on marketing: Using customer equity to focus marketing strategy. Journal of Marketing, 68(1), 109-127.

Kumar, V., & Petersen, J. A. (2005). Using a customer-level marketing strategy to enhance firm performance: a review of theoretical and empirical evidence. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 33(4), 504-519.

Rice, E., Holloway, I. W., Barman-Adhikari, A., Fuentes, D., Brown, C. H., & Palinkas, L. A. (2014). A mixed methods approach to network data collection. Field Methods, 26(3), 252-268.

Creswell, J. W., & Clark, V. P. (2007). Mixed methods research. Thousand Oaks, CA.

Krak, N. C., Boellaard, R., Hoekstra, O. S., Twisk, J. W., Hoekstra, C. J., & Lammertsma, A. A. (2005). Effects of ROI definition and reconstruction method on quantitative outcome and applicability in a response monitoring trial. European journal of nuclear medicine and molecular imaging, 32, 294-301.

Madruga, R., Silva, É., Pessanha, J., Arruda, H., & Haddad, A. (2024). Developing a Comprehensive Customer Experience Management Maturity Index Based on Employee Perceptions. IEEE Access.

Burns, M., Gozala, M. E., Zoia, G., & Hartig, K. (2016). The Customer Experience Management Maturity Model. US: Forrester Research.

Bernardo Renzi, A., & Agner, L. (2023, July). Prioritization matrix to highlight business opportunities. In International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (pp. 38-50). Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland.

Rietveld, M. R., van Dijk, J. V. D., & Gülüm Taş, P. (2023). Strategic investment strategy for software companies using a multi-criteria decision analysis approach.

Hamilton, R. W., Rust, R. T., & Dev, C. S. (2017). Which features increase customer retention? MIT Sloan Management Review, 58(2), 79-84.