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A major source of failure for new ventures is the entrepreneurs℉ misunderstanding of the product-market fit. Recently, researchers have suggested that to get a better understanding of the product-market fit, entrepreneurs should “get out of the building” and interview many customers. This approach, while advantageous, is not without drawbacks. This article presents a conceptual model that incorporates the characteristics of “getting out of the building” to conduct customer interviews, and the biases that can arise to influence the entrepreneurs℉ misjudgment of the product-market fit. We provide recommendations to overcome these biases.

The aim of this study is to examine the impact of the fit between product-service strategy and sensing capability on novelty, and the potential moderating impact of contextual factors (i.e. technological and market turbulence) on novelty.

In line with the aim of the study, a quantitative approach is adopted and a multi-item scale survey is designed to collect primary data. Using a mixed mode survey, a total number of 491 questionnaires are collected from a sample of UK-based telecommunications firms. Multiple regression is used to test the hypotheses and predict the outcomes.

The results support the positive contribution of a contingency approach to the study of the impact of the fit between product-service strategy and sensing dynamic capability on novelty. The results also partially confirm the reinforcing impact of technological and market turbulence on novelty.

This study extends research on product-service strategy and sensing capability by adopting a contingency view, which intends to serve two purposes: to complement the existing reductionistic explanations and to explore how the relationship between product-service strategy and sensing capability could create novelty as well as the degree to which this relationship could be moderated in light of the external contextual factors.

Cause‐related marketing (CRM), the practice of donating money to a charity for each consumer purchase, has become an important part of corporate philanthropy. This research seeks to explore two types of product‐cause fit in CRM, and examine whether the selection of consistent‐fit and complementary‐fit causes could be influenced by product type and donation level.

An experiment in conjoint design was conducted based on a computer‐based survey involving 512 choice‐based conjoint interviews.

It is found that consumers are more likely to choose a hedonic product offering a donation with a complementary‐fit cause. In contrast, individuals tend to prefer a utilitarian product with a consistent‐fit cause. Beneficial effects of a complementary‐fit cause are enhanced when the donation level is high.

This paper is one of the first to present comprehensive qualitative analyses of consumer behavior with regard to product‐cause fit with diversity of products and situations. It provides more fruitful results than simple willingness‐to‐buy studies or direct inquires into people's attitudes toward CRM used in previous research, since less socially desired answers are obtained by taking an indirect approach to discovering consumer preferences. The paper raises concerns over the understanding of product‐cause fit and how exactly it works, especially with regard to sponsoring a cause that is complementary to the product image.

A study of the characteristics of successful new consumer financial products is described. The first stage of the investigation involved the identification of financial product attributes possibly associated with success. A total of 43 were found. Information was then collected on these attributes for 77 new financial products and was simplified by grouping into nine distinct factors. The article describes all nine factors in detail with illustrations. Four of the factors are particularly associated with success. They are: “overall quality” (the product, the delivery system, after‐sales service, the organisation′s reputation for quality); having a differentiated product (being first, being innovative); product fit and internal marketing (the new product complementing existing products and receiving the support of staff); and use of technology.

The purpose of this paper is to highlight different strategy–business model (BM) alignments using Miles and Snow’s strategic framework and analyze the performance implications of these different alignments.

The paper develops a composite conceptual model combining Miles and Snow’s strategy typology with Demil and Lecocq’s BM framework to explore the performance implications of strategy–BM fit. This model is empirically examined using a sample of 156 French small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the manufacturing sector.

The results first highlight a limited set of BM configurations across strategic profiles, confirming that a BM reflects a firm’s strategy as a means of realizing strategic choices. Second, they reveal that deviating from ideal strategy–BM alignments negatively affects performance. Finally, they shed light on the dynamics of Miles and Snow’s typology, from intended to implemented strategy.

The intrinsic characteristics of surveyed SMEs led to the hybridization of empirically derived profiles, which allowed to partially associate them with theoretically predicted configurations of BMs.

The paper suggests the patterns of predictive strategy–BM alignment that allow managers and entrepreneurs to monitor the dynamic consistency between strategic choices and their implementation.

Do you need a strategy if you have a BM? Adopting a fit and performance perspective, this paper addresses this question and complements other studies emphasizing the need to connect strategies and BMs.

Previous research warns against low-fit extensions as prone to causing negative spillover and, through it, harming the parent brand equity. Using the theory of schema-triggered affect and the link formation hypothesis, the purpose of this paper is to develop and tests predictions as to how negative spillover from low-fit extensions can be actively managed through repeated ad exposure.

A controlled experiment assesses the response of US consumers to the Dutch Heineken brand, a top 100 global brand, following sequential and repeated exposure to print ads depicting extensions for either Heineken wheat beer (i.e. a high-fit extension) or Heineken pretzels (i.e. a low-fit extension). Analytical methods include multiple regression, ANOVA, and t-tests.

The findings show that repeated ad exposure has a positive moderating effect on the magnitude of spillover from extension to brand. Second, the findings also show that repeated ad exposure changes the valence of spillover from low-fit extension to brand from negative to positive. In combination, the findings suggest that low-fit brand extensions can, when carefully managed, be a viable strategic option for market growth that is especially relevant for global brands.

This research shows that repeated ad exposure can change the valence of spillover from low-fit extensions to the parent brand from negative to positive. Future research should extend the work by considering other brands and alternative tools that managers can use to make low-fit extensions a viable strategic choice.

This study finds, in contrast to previous research, that managers should indeed consider low-fit brand extensions as a viable strategic option for brand growth. This is possible because the findings show that repeated ad exposure can be used to control potential negative spillover from a low-fit extension to parent brand. This conclusion is particularly relevant for global brands, i.e. brands for which the opportunity costs of limiting global expansion and the financial investment necessary to establish a new brand with global appeal are substantial.

This paper differs from other spillover studies by manipulating repeated ad exposure, a mechanism which the authors theoretically link to spillover and which managers can also directly influence. In doing so, this paper offers a theoretical explanation and an empirical test of how negative spillover from low-fit extensions can be managed.

Although not yet frequently used in marketing management, design thinking (DT) encompasses a creative, proactive, and empathic approach that connects different bodies of knowledge to shape innovative product and service solutions. Based on lean progress models, DT combines a manufacturer’s strategic objectives with the customer’s business requirements. This model focusses on the most important ‘pains’ the customers actually have in order to co-develop and more successfully sell products or services that provide value to specific customer groups or segments. This chapter aims to shed light on the potential of applying DT in new product or service development processes in different business fields to incorporate significant customer requirements a priori. The goal of this method is twofold: to reduce the extremely high risk of unsuccessful product launches and to make the integration of important customers during the product development phase easier.

Few studies have conceptualized how companies can build and nurture international dynamic marketing capabilities (IDMCs) by implementing growth hacking strategies. This paper conceptualizes growth hacking, a managerial-born process to embed a data-driven mind-set in marketing decision-making that combines big-data analysis and continuous learning, allowing companies to adapt their dynamic capabilities to the ever-shifting international competitive arenas.

Given the scarcity of studies on growth hacking, this paper conceptualizes this managerial-born concept through the double theoretical lenses of IDMCs and information technology (IT) literature.

The authors put forward research propositions concerning the four phases of growth hacking and the related capabilities and routines developed by companies to deal with international markets. Additional novel propositions are also developed based on the three critical dimensions of growth hacking: big data analytics, digital marketing and coding and automation.

Lack of prior conceptualization as well as the scant literature makes this study liable to some limitations. However, the propositions developed should encourage researchers to develop both empirical and theoretical studies on this managerial-born concept.

This study develops a detailed compendium for managers who want to implement growth hacking within their companies but have failed to identify the necessary capabilities and resources.

The study presents a theoretical approach and develops a set of propositions on a novel phenomenon, observed mainly in managerial practice. Hence, this study could stimulate researchers to deepen the phenomenon and empirically validate the propositions.

Seeks to understand whether the level of knowledge acquisition from customers and the participation of employees in knowledge dissemination have an impact on the product quality. Proposes a structural model of the impact of knowledge management on the quality of a new product. Employing confirmatory factor and regression analysis, examines the relationship between KM and product quality, and finds some interactions between KM and moderators also have significant effect on product quality. These findings imply that if organizations fail to understand the subtle ways by which different features of KM influence product quality, they may fail to harvest the full value of KM.

This paper aims to identify the differentiated paths followed by firms to innovate in business models, among four different strategic postures and also to determine the innovation interactions between business model components, among strategic postures. The authors intend to highlight the differentiated patterns of business model innovation (BMI) in each strategic posture and provide guidance to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) managers regarding the suitable alignments of business model components when they innovate in their business model.

The research model developed and tested in this work uses a composite model that borrows from the logic of Miles and Snow’s cycle of adaptive strategic choices as well as Demil and Lecocq’s perspective of permanent change within and between components of a business model. The authors’ model is designed first to encompass the differentiated patterns characterizing the relationships between the strategic posture of defender, prospector and analyzer profiles and the related innovation attributes of their business model components. The study was conducted with independent French manufacturing SMEs ranging from 10 to 250 employees in size and having revenues below €50m (European Commission, 2007). The analysed sample includes 169 firms from 14 sectors representative of French manufacturing SMEs.

Results confirm the differentiated propensity to adopt specific BMI behaviours among strategic postures. The authors also highlight the differentiated interactions between and within BMI components. These results suggest that SMEs tend to leverage specific BMI components related to their entrepreneurial, engineering and administrative choices. Thus, firms tend to evolve in a posture-specific, path-dependent dynamic consistency in which BMI attributes interact towards a limited set of alternatives, thus anchoring the new business model into strategic choices. It has been shown that the predictability of strategy–BMI alignment is contingent on the level of fit between empirically derived strategic profile attributes and Miles and Snow’s ideal profile attributes.

This paper investigates strategy–BMI alignments without addressing such alignments from the standpoint of firm performance. Still, performance from a BMI perspective lies in the ability of the firm to sustain the dynamic consistency of its business model components by identifying the effects of change in interactions between and within components on overall BM performance. Further studies should explore dynamic consistency as a means for firms to generate and maintain performance by innovating in their business model when facing specific contingencies. The conceptual framework designed for the present research seems appropriate for conducting such an investigation on the performance implications of strategy–BMI fit.

This research offers insights regarding manufacturing SMEs seeking guidance when changing business strategy. Indeed, by combining Miles and Snow’s configurational framework of strategic postures with Demil and Lecocq’s RCOV BM framework, the authors provide insights that can bridge the gap between intended strategy and realized strategy. The authors suggest that when realizing new strategic choices, SMEs should favour behaviours of BMI that are likely to fit the new intended strategic posture. Accordingly, the authors introduce a set of field-based BMI alignments specific to firms’ strategic posture to support the strategic management of innovation in SMEs.

By unravelling the alignments between strategic posture and business model innovation, this work contributes to enlightening the dynamics of Miles and Snow’s adaptive cycle. Indeed, viewing Miles and Snow’s typology from the configurational perspective of BMI provides a clearer picture of the adaptive cycle through which BMI reflects the path-dependent process of the formation of the firm’s strategic posture through the transformation of its business model.