Transforming insight into innovation : how start-ups use customer insight to create new products and services

Abstract

Customer insight (CI) generation and use remains largely under-explored. Most studies assessing CI relevance in marketing decisions deal with established corporates while focus on start-ups’ capabilities and exploit of CI remain scarce. CI among start-ups is anticipated to take a critical strategic value as start-up firms struggle to create innovative products and services in a fast-evolving market. Our study seeks to broaden the current understanding about CI as a learning process, investigating how start-ups employ CI to meet dynamic markets’ challenges. Considering the observed gaps in literature, we plan to use a case study strategy employing action research among a selection of start-ups that face dynamic market scenarios. We aim to use our findings to offer a valid contribution relevant for researchers and practitioners alike, highlighting differences in the generation and use of CI between start-up and established firms, as well as the CI usage extent and processes among startups.