Strategic Research Architecture: Aligning Consumer Research And Strategy

Sustaining innovation success over time demands market insights not just for incremental product improvement efforts, but also for strategic decisionmaking. Many companies systematically overinvest in understanding their current consumers in their current market and underinvest in the longer-term research that uncovers viable new market opportunities, implicitly exposing their business to strategic risk. The authors argue that by creating a Strategic Research Architecture (SRA) that aligns and integrates strategic and consumer research activities, organizations can balance research efforts across near and long-term time horizons, dramatically enhancing their chances of sustaining competitive differentiation.