P: ISSN No. 0976-8602 RNI No.  UPENG/2012/42622 VOL.- XIII , ISSUE- IV October  - 2024
E: ISSN No. 2349-9443 Asian Resonance

Entrepreneurial Marketing Strategies – Emerging Trends
Paper Id :  19358   Submission Date :  2024-10-26   Acceptance Date :  2024-10-21   Publication Date :  2024-10-21
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DOI:10.5281/zenodo.14191169
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Bikash Mukherjee
Research Scholar
School Of Business
Sushant University
Gurgaon,Haryana, India
Jagat Narayn Giri
Professor
School Of Business
Sushant University
Gurgaon, Haryana, India
Abstract

Marketing is critical for startups to spread information about their existence and the products and services they offer. Startups have to struggle to make their mark in the market as they have lesser resources to conduct their marketing activities. This paper reviews literature from the year 2000 till 2024. From a total of 994 papers, this study shortlisted 155 papers from the Scopus database to arrive at the most influential authors, journals, countries and documents to understand the landscape of entrepreneurial marketing.It provides the top 10 most influential authors, the top 10 most influential journals, the top 10 most productive countries, conducts a key word co-occurrence analysis, a co-citation analysis of authors and references along with bibliographic coupling of authors as well as journals. This study provides meaningful insights useful to founders of startups as well as academicians. 

Keywords Marketing, Strategies, Startups, Entrepreneurial marketing, Bibliometric analysis.
Introduction

Research Background

Worldwide, startups are viewed as a source of job creation and economic growth in most countries (Ogbari et al., 2019). Countries are seen to undertake multiple initiatives to boost startups in their economies (Otchia, 2019). Founders of startups create ventures which provide employment to many. They engage in economic activities which contribute to the GDP of their country. Some of the startups also export their products or services which add important foreign exchange to the country’s economy. Yet, a key challenge faced by the startups is marketing (Westgren and Wuebker, 2019). The lack of marketing often leads to the startup’s failure (Amjad, 2020). The challenges include competition, uncertainties, risks, and complexities of marketing (Cavusgil and Cavusgil, 2012).

Marketing is a key activity for any company (Most et al., 2018). This is especially relevant for startups, as they need to make their audience aware of their presence and the products or services that they offer. Thus, entrepreneurial marketing is viewed as the interaction among startups and marketing (Kraus et al., 2012, Crick, 2018), both being important areas of academic research that has attracted multiple scholars (Yadav and Bansal, 2020).

Marketing strategies of startups have been researched by various scholars in literature. Some have used a variety of databases (Yadav and Bansal, 2020; Kraus et al., 2012), while others have focused on Web-of-Science (Most et al., 2018; Antunes et al., 2020). This study examines research conducted from 2000, the year when the dot-com bubble burst, till 2024. This period has seen startups grow across the world, outperforming many established businesses. This period is important to study as startups evolved, and with the help of technology, thrived in their domains. The Scopus database has been used to explore literature, as it is one of the widest sources of academic studies used across the world.

Since startups are low on financial resources initially, the marketing strategies are somewhat different than those in established and larger organizations (Moriarty et al., 2008). Marketing in startups is often described as entrepreneurial marketing (Kraus et al., 2010). In startups, the marketing strategies involve the personality of the founder, their skills and abilities, and constrained resources (O’Dwyer et al., 2009). Some scholars argue that traditional marketing and its related theories and models are not applicable in the context of startups (Alabduljader et al., 2018).

The startup marketing scenario is dynamic, rapidly evolving, and highly competitive comprising of a vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem, strong investor networks, and a growing consumer base. As a result, marketing strategies for startups are adapting to meet the unique challenges and opportunities posed by the market.

Marketing strategies need to be highly segmented to address the needs and preferences of different consumer groups. For example, a tech startup targeting millennials will adopt digital marketing channels like social media and influencer marketing, while a healthcare startup might focus on more traditional methods such as community outreach and partnerships with local clinics. Startups are increasingly adopting a digital-first marketing approach. The region has a high penetration of internet and smartphone users, making it a prime market for virtual portals. Platforms like Insta, FB, LinkedIn, and Twitter are commonly used to reach target audiences. In particular, startups leverage Instagram influencers, YouTube content creators, and LinkedIn thought leaders to build brand awareness and engage potential customers. Search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM) are also crucial in this digital landscape. Given the competitive environment, startups invest heavily in optimizing their websites and content for Google search rankings. Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, particularly Google Ads, is a common tactic to generate quick traffic and leads, especially in the early stages of growth.

Content marketing is another powerful tool in the arsenal of startups and they often use blogs, videos, podcasts, and webinars to educate their audience, build trust, and generate leads. This content is then promoted across digital channels, including social media, email marketing, and partnerships with online communities. Many startups in the tech, education, and healthcare sectors use content to establish thought leadership and differentiate themselves from competitors. Influencer marketing is particularly prevalent, especially for consumer-facing brands. Collaborating with local influencers who have a strong following in specific niches allows startups to tap into an engaged and loyal audience. These collaborations can range from product reviews and giveaways to sponsored content and long-term ambassadorships. Some startups often partner with co-working spaces, local events, and incubators to gain visibility in the community. These partnerships help them not only in marketing their products and services but also in building a strong network of mentors, advisors, and potential clients.

While the startup ecosystem is thriving, it is also highly competitive. Startups need to stand out in a crowded marketplace where many businesses are vying for the attention of the same target audience. With limited marketing budgets, startups often face the challenge of making a significant impact without spending excessively. As a result, marketing strategies need to be cost-effective and high-impact.Many startups rely on performance marketing to get measurable results. Performance-based strategies, including cost-per-acquisition (CPA) campaigns, are attractive because they allow startups to optimize their ad spend for tangible results like signups, purchases, or downloads.

For this bibliometric analysis, this study explores research from across the globe. The articles selected for this study are in English language as this language is the most popular among authors to publish their work in international journals. The aim of this study is to understand the evolution of researchaligned to marketing strategies of startups, identify the most influential documents, authors, journal, and countries in this academic theme. This study contributes to a better understanding of how research on marketing strategies of startups have evolved since the year 2000 till 2024. The study is organized as given hereafter. In the beginning of the study, an introduction to the theme is provided. This is followed by the research methodology adopted for this study, that in turn is followed by a section on findings and discussion. This is followed by a section on limitations and future directions. Towards the end of the study, the conclusion section summarizes the bibliometric review.

It is very important for every startup to adopt appropriate effective marketing strategies to acquire and retain customers.

Objective of study
The aim of this study is to understand the evolution of research aligned to marketing strategies of startups, identify the most influential documents, authors, journal, and countries in this academic theme. This study contributes to a better understanding of how research on marketing strategies of startups have evolved since the year 2000 till 2024.
Review of Literature

Bibliometric analysis is an appropriate approach for reviewing literature as it enables scholars to have an overview of research conducted in a specific area. This analysis permits the identification of trends in publishing using specific indicators such as number of published papers and citations (Martinez-Lopez et al., 2020). The data for this study was extracted from Scopus database. Scopus is a widely used database by scholars across the globe as it has the most indexed international journals and is well respected by global academic and scientific community (Lopez-Bonilla and Lopez-Bonilla, 2020).

The search was conducted using the keywords: a. “Marketing Strategies” AND “Start-ups” b. "Marketing Strategies" AND "Startups" c. "Marketing Strategies" AND "Entrepre*". The chosen timeline was from January 1, 2000 to August 30, 2024. The rationale for choosing the year 2000 as the starting year for this study was that the dot-com bubble had just burst and the ventures starting business after this focused more on technology to scale up and thrive. This study selected only peer reviewed articles and excluded books, reviews, conference proceedings, and other forms of literature. The articles written only in English were chosen. As seen in figure 1, 155 articles were extracted to MS Excel to enable analysis on the metamorphosis of Marketing Strategies in startups. The analysis was conducted by exporting the excel file to Vosviewer version 1.5.19.
Methodology

The data for this study was extracted from Scopus database. Scopus is a widely used database by scholars across the globe as it has the most indexed international journals and is well respected by global academic and scientific community (Lopez-Bonilla and Lopez-Bonilla, 2020). The search was conducted using the keywords: a. “Marketing Strategies” AND “Start-ups” b. "Marketing Strategies" AND "Startups" c. "Marketing Strategies" AND "Entrepre*". 
Sampling

From a total sample of 994 articles, 155 articles were extracted for analysis.  
Tools Used Vosviewer version 1.5.19
Analysis

As seen in figure 1, 155 articles were extracted to MS Excel to enable analysis on the metamorphosis of Marketing Strategies in startups. The analysis was conducted by exporting the excel file to Vosviewer version 1.5.19.
Result and Discussion

The Overlay Visualization of the countries publishing papers on this subject is shown in the figure below, shows that the countries United States, United Kingdom, and Finland published papers prior to the year 2019. In recent years, other countries such as India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brazil, Ukraine, and China have published papers on this subject.


Figure 3: Top 10 Most Influential Countries Overlay

Keyword Co-occurrence

A keyword co-occurrence analysis enables scholars to identify main themes and relatedness between topics of research. In addition, it provides insights about the importance and trends within a particular area of research.

 Figure 4: Keyword Co-occurrence

For this analysis, keywords that had a minimum occurrence of 5, were selected. From a total of 623 keywords, 16 met the threshold. This study’s keyword analysis, as given in figure 4, shows the emergence of keywords such as ‘digital marketing’ and ‘social media marketing’ as emerging keywords in recent years. These seem to have evolved from keywords such as ‘marketing mix’ and ‘social media’. Most of the keywords are connected to the keywords ‘marketing strategy’ and ‘entrepreneurial marketing’. Digital marketing is connected to 11 nodes, which is the highest connectivity. Marketing is also connected to 11 nodes, but the concept was explored around the year 2016-2017.

Co-citations Authors

A co-citation analysis of authors is utilized to analyze the intellectual structure of a research area. This type of analysis studies the cognitive structure of the domain. Co-citation analysis tracks combination of articles which get cited together in the source papers.

Figure 5: Co-citations – Authors

For this analysis, authors having a minimum of 20 citations were selected. Of the 10748 authors, 23 met the threshold. The largest set of connected items consists of 22 items. The size of the node as given in figure 5, reflects the weight given to citations. The figure shows four clusters.

Co-citations References

When academic papers are referenced alongside one another, they are referred to as ‘co-cited’. The analysis of co-citation involves tracing such sets of papers that have been referenced together in a particular article. Cluster of studies begin to get formed, when the same set of papers are referenced or co-cited by multiple authors. Each such cluster then comprises of papers having a common theme. In this analysis, of the 6900 cited references, 22 meet the threshold. As seen in the figure 6, five clusters emerge.


Figure 6: Co-citations – References

Bibliographic Coupling –Authors

Bibliographic coupling is used to study the effect when a set of documents, ideally two, reference a third document, which is common between the set of two documents. It is often used as a measure the degree of similarity between documents.



 

Figure 7: Bibliographic Coupling – Authors

For this analysis, the least quantity of documents per author was taken as one, and the least citations per author was taken as 10. Of 146 authors, 36 met the threshold. The largest set of connected items consists of 24 items.

Bibliographic Coupling - Journals

For this analysis, the minimum number of documents per journal was taken as 2, with minimum citations per journal as zero. Of the 107 sources, 21 met the threshold. The maximum number of connected items were 14 items.

Figure 8: Bibliographic Coupling – Journals
Findings

Publication Trend

An analysis of publications from the year 2000 to 2024, shows that publications up to the year 1999, was in single digits. The number of publications grew at a fast pace from 2020 onwards, with the number of publications in only eight months of 2024 (22 articles) being more than three times the number of publications in 2019 (7 articles). From the year 2000 to 2019, the number of papers published on this subject ranged from 1 to 7. However, the quantum of articles published from the year 2020 to 2021 ranged from 10 to 17. The quantum of publications grew rapidly in the years 2022, 2023, and 2024, ranging from 22 to 25 papers published per year.
Figure 2: Publication Trend (Year wise)
Most Influential Authors
Citation analysis of authors measures the relative impact of an author. This is measured by counting the number of times that particular author is cited by other authors in their research. The top ten authors in terms of citations are given in figure 3. Knight G. has the maximum number of citations, 510, followed by Mort et al., with 145 citations, and Morrish et al., have 128 citations.

Most Influential Journals
A citation analysis of journal in this domain, gives us the top 10 journals with the maximum citations. The Journal of International Marketing has the maximum citations at 510, followed by the “Journal of Research in Marketing and Entrepreneurship” at 147, followed closely by the “Journal of Strategic Marketing” at 143 citations. The top 10 most cited journals in this subject are given in figure 4, below.


Most Productive Countries

The most productive and influential countries are given in table 3. India is the most productive country in this subject with 25 documents. It is however, the 5th most influential country with 102 citations. The most influential country is the United Kingdom with 389 citations. However, it is ranked at the 3rd place, in terms of production of papers. Finland is the least productive country among the top 10 most productive countries. However, it is the 2nd most influential country, with 247 citations. This implies that being productive does not necessarily equate to being influential.
Conclusion

This study highlights the evolution of marketing strategies of startups as provided in literature. This will provide start-ups the impetus to attempt to evolve the startup ecosystem. This will need linkages with education, talent, innovation, accelerators, incubators, and funding agencies. The government of India is also supporting Startups through its initiative Make-In-India. As per Nasscom India ranks third in global start-up ecosystem. Starting a new venture is an opportunity for founders to learn and implement marketing strategies which inspire others. Entrepreneurs are facing challenges related to acquiring customers, but some exceed the expectations.

As the ecosystem evolves, new trends are emerging. AI-powered marketing tools are becoming more accessible to startups, allowing them to scale and personalize their strategies effectively. Moreover, with the growing popularity of vernacular content and platforms catering to regional languages, startups are focusing more on localization to reach a wider audience. Overall, the startup marketing landscape is dynamic, requiring companies to be innovative, agile, and resourceful. Whether through digital marketing, influencer collaborations, or community engagement, startups are constantly discovering new ways to connect with their target audience. Despite challenges, the region presents vast opportunities for startups that can skillfully navigate its complexities.
Suggestions for the future Study Recommendations for future study have been included in the Limitations section.
Limitation of the Study This research is not without limitations. The limitations of this study are inherent to other bibliometric analysis. The database chosen was Scopus. Future researchers may choose to explore other databases as well, such as Web of Science, EBSCO, JSTOR, ABI/INFORM, and others. This study used Vosviewer. Future scholars may use other software, which may provide further insights. This study does not aim to develop a theory. Future studies may focus on development of a theory, in addition to exploring the research trends. This study used three combinations of keywords. Future scholars may examine a combination of keywords including “digital”, “technology”, and “artificial intelligence” while exploring marketing strategies in the startup context.
Publication of papers on marketing strategies of start-ups boosted after the year 2022. Future research scholars may conduct further research on emerging topics such as ‘social media marketing’ and ‘digital marketing’.
Though India is the most productive country in this subject with 25 documents, it ranks 5th in the list of most influential countries, with 102 citations. Future research scholars should focus on topics of wider interest with greater practical and theoretical implications.
Acknowledgement The authors have not received financial support of any nature whatsoever, for the publication of this article.
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