Marketing capability and growthEvidence check: 4.5/5
Anderson, S. J., Chandy, R. K., & Zia, B. (2021). Journal of Marketing Research. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022242921993176.
Plain-English take: Entrepreneurs randomly matched with volunteer marketers significantly increased firm growth. For your marketing: Evidence that applied marketing expertise can affect small-firm growth, while underscoring the importance of implementation context.
Question: Can marketing expertise help small entrepreneurs improve business performance?
Design: Multiyear randomized field experiment. Entrepreneurs and small firms in Uganda participating in a volunteer-marketer program; the abstracted sources emphasize firm growth outcomes.
Entrepreneurs randomly matched with volunteer marketers significantly increased firm growth. The paper evaluates how practical marketing assistance affects business outcomes in this context.
Journal of Marketing Research · 202110.1177/0022242921993176Publisher abstract and author-hosted paper
Marketing capability and growthEvidence check: 3.5/5
Sabato Nocera, Simone Romano, Massimiliano Di Penta, Rita Francese, Giuseppe Scanniello (2025). Journal of Systems and Software.
Plain-English take: SBOM adoption is low but rising. SBOMs are mostly generated through build-integration tools or GitHub Actions; fewer than half of analyzed projects include them in version control or public release artifacts. Only a limited fraction contain minimum/recommended information, and some are noncompliant with existing SBOM standards. For a founder, use this as a question to test in your own context, not a universal playbook.
Question: How widely are SBOMs adopted by open-source projects, how are they generated/distributed, and how complete and standards-compliant are they?
Design: Exploratory empirical mining study. 186 public GitHub software repositories using SPDX or CycloneDX generation tools. The publisher abstract does not report a human-participant sample.
SBOM adoption is low but rising. SBOMs are mostly generated through build-integration tools or GitHub Actions; fewer than half of analyzed projects include them in version control or public release artifacts. Only a limited fraction contain minimum/recommended information, and some are noncompliant with existing SBOM standards.
Journal of Systems and Software · 202510.1016/j.jss.2025.112540Full text retrieved from publisher or linked open repository
Marketing capability and growthEvidence check: 3/5
Sunil Chaudhary, Vasileios Gkioulos, Sokratis Katsikas (2023). Computer Science Review.
Plain-English take: SMEs often lack resources, expertise, and incentives to prioritize cybersecurity; SME-exclusive cybersecurity-awareness research is rare. The review maps gaps and provides directions for adapting awareness research to SME needs. For a founder, use this as a question to test in your own context, not a universal playbook.
Question: Which cybersecurity-awareness aspects require further research specifically for SMEs, and what knowledge gaps should guide SME-focused awareness research?
Design: Systematic literature review / research-gap synthesis. Published research studies on cybersecurity awareness or related domains, with priority given to SME-focused studies; the publisher abstract does not state the number of included papers.
SMEs often lack resources, expertise, and incentives to prioritize cybersecurity; SME-exclusive cybersecurity-awareness research is rare. The review maps gaps and provides directions for adapting awareness research to SME needs.
Computer Science Review · 202310.1016/j.cosrev.2023.100592Full text retrieved from publisher or linked open repository
Marketing capability and growthEvidence check: 2.5/5
Domingos G. Silva, Carlos Coutinho, Carlos J. Costa (2023). Journal of Open Innovation: Technology, Market, and Complexity.
Plain-English take: The abstract reports significant relationships between FOSS adoption and low cost, performance expectation, social influence, and system quality; safety/security, interoperability, and usability are described as especially important in adoption decisions. The paper proposes a new adoption model. For a founder, use this as a question to test in your own context, not a universal playbook.
Question: To what extent do cost, system quality, usability, interoperability, security, performance expectation, and social influence affect intention to adopt/use FOSS in developing-country organizations?
Design: Empirical survey study using SEM-PLS. Organizations/public-sector context in developing countries; the source describes a survey and developing-country FOSS organizations but does not report an exact respondent or organization count in the accessible abstract/record.
The abstract reports significant relationships between FOSS adoption and low cost, performance expectation, social influence, and system quality; safety/security, interoperability, and usability are described as especially important in adoption decisions. The paper proposes a new adoption model.
Journal of Open Innovation: Technology, Market, and Complexity · 202310.1016/j.joitmc.2023.01.002Publisher abstract/metadata retrieved; full text not reviewed
Marketing capability and growthEvidence check: 3.5/5
Neeshe Khan, Steven Furnell, Maria Bada, Matthew Rand, Jason R. C. Nurse (2025). Computers & Security.
Plain-English take: Providers played an assistive role in education and implementation, but SME cyber hygiene and knowledge remained low; comprehension, capability, attitudes and resources constrained security; security-focused communities could improve support, collaboration and learning. For a founder, use this as a question to test in your own context, not a universal playbook.
Question: What cybersecurity support do providers offer SMEs, what triggers requests, how effective is support, and how can it improve?
Design: Full-text qualitative empirical study. 12 participants from organizations providing cybersecurity advice or solutions in the UK; participants had cumulative exposure to numerous SMEs.
Providers played an assistive role in education and implementation, but SME cyber hygiene and knowledge remained low; comprehension, capability, attitudes and resources constrained security; security-focused communities could improve support, collaboration and learning.
Computers & Security · 202510.1016/j.cose.2025.104448Full text retrieved from publisher or linked open repository
Marketing capability and growthEvidence check: 3/5
Angelica Pigola, Priscila Rezende da Costa (2025). Information and Computer Security.
Plain-English take: “Doing” and “improving” dimensions were positively associated with cybersecurity intelligence; “enabling” and “managing” dimensions did not make significant contributions. For a founder, use this as a question to test in your own context, not a universal playbook.
Question: Which dynamic capabilities contribute to organizational cybersecurity intelligence?
Design: Abstract-supported quantitative empirical study. 207 cybersecurity experts across diverse regions.
“Doing” and “improving” dimensions were positively associated with cybersecurity intelligence; “enabling” and “managing” dimensions did not make significant contributions.
Information and Computer Security · 202510.1108/ICS-08-2024-0185Publisher abstract/metadata retrieved; full text not reviewed