CUSTOMER PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT: ANALYSIS AND EVOLUTIONARY PERSPECTIVES.

This research outlines a comprehensive and structured review of the academic literature on Customer Portfolio Management (CPM). The relevance of this topic lies in the growing need for firms to understand how to manage their heterogeneous customer base more effectively, in a context of limited resources and rapidly changing market conditions. The primary objective of this research is to develop an integrated conceptual framework that supports firms in addressing this managerial challenge. To this end, the study examines the evolution of customer management models developed in the literature since the 1980s, moving from early portfolio-based approaches to more recent network-oriented and data-driven perspectives. The analysis highlights how customer management has evolved over time, shifting from an isolated and transactional focus to a more interconnected and developed context, in which relationships act as bridges that enable access to and connections with other nodes within a broader network of relationships. This evolution reflects a change in paradigm from Customer Relationship Management (CRM), primarily focused on individual transactions, to Customer Portfolio Management (CPM). Moreover, the increasing relevance of networks is associated with an overload of data generated across multiple touch-points. As a result, firms face the challenge of dealing with large amounts of information, balancing quantitative analysis with qualitative evaluation. In this continuously changing context, customer value is embedded within dynamic environments and cannot be considered static. In conclusion, this research highlights that businesses competing in saturated and continuously evolving markets must adopt flexible and portfolio-based approaches to customer management, as customers represent one of the most valuable assets of firms and play a central role in supporting sustainable growth for both parties.