Abstract:

While the benefits of marketing competence are well-recognized for mature firms, insights on how startup ventures should develop their marketing competence are sparse. Because startups are heavily resource-constrained, deciding to develop marketing competence might come at the expense of other competences—a major challenge for new ventures that seek to grow beyond their founding team. To address this challenge, we propose a conceptual framework and empirical strategy to examine the value of developing marketing competence ahead of other competences, that is, prioritized marketing competence. First, does prioritized marketing competence increase startup innovation outcomes? Second, how does marketing’s relative contribution to venture decision-making within the startup moderate the impact of prioritized marketing competence on innovation outcomes? Analyzing a sample of more than 270 startups, we find that prioritized marketing leads to higher startup innovation outcomes. Results further suggest a moderating role of marketing’s relative contribution: founder marketing competence and additional non-marketing responsibilities weaken the effect of prioritized marketing on innovation outcomes, while marketing competence intensity partially strengthens the effect of prioritized marketing on innovation outcomes. Altogether, the findings demonstrate the value of committing resources to developing marketing competence early in a venture’s life.

General information:

If you are interested in joining this seminar, please send an email to the secretariat of the Amsterdam Business School at secbs-abs@uva.nl.