Customer insight in start-ups : a systematic literature review

Abstract

Interest in customer insight has made inroads in academic discourse to identify strategic sources of information about customers, markets and competition while encompassing diverse activities and processes. Customer insight (CI) use and the related influencing factors in a start-up context remain largely under-explored, as existing literature in entrepreneurial management and marketing domains focuses on established companies. Start-ups generate significant strategic value when using CI to create innovative offerings in fast-evolving markets. CI represents, therefore, a strategic management means to strengthen a firm's responsiveness to environmental threats and opportunities by identifying what drives customers' attitudes and behaviour. This study presents a systematic literature review on CI use, examining recent advances and seeks to broaden our current understanding of how start-ups use CI to create new business opportunities. The key findings suggest that despite a moderate yet growing research interest on start-ups' responsiveness to customers' wants and needs through the use of CI, some issues remain unaddressed. We identify two significant gaps in the reviewed literature. The first gap is the lack of a detailed classification that may describe the processes of CI generation or acquisition, dissemination, interpretation, implementation and storage. The second gap relates to factors that influence start-ups' use of CI. Disregarding these findings implies dismissing the benefits of CI adoption for a start-up to achieve a competitive advantage, successful performance, and scalable business model. We aim to use the findings emerging from this study to extend the existing understanding of how start-ups respond to shifts in the marketplace and determine a future research agenda.