Designing an implementation model for growth hacking strategy for startups

 In the new age and due to the advancement of technology and increasing changes in the business world, Startup businesses an important role in the economy of any country. This role has led entrepreneurs and business elites to think of new ways to grow and increase sales of these startups. One of the most flexible and agile business models is startups, which researchers refer to as the engines of the national economy. Startups are fast and flexible, have less bureaucracy, and have more motivation to succeed than large corporations. Startups are the beating heart of any economy. In developing countries, the commercial success of these start-ups is an important issue. But despite their continued contribution to economic growth, these companies face many problems, including resource constraints. The high failure rate of startups has led to a waste of resources and capital, so that the failure rate in the early stages of startups is much higher and has put them at high risk. Another limitation is that startups do not have high financial resources and capital, so to survive and succeed in competitive markets, they must use methods that achieve the highest results at a low cost and can attract customers. The growth of startups is significantly associated with economic development at the industrial, national and regional levels through the exploitation of new jobs and job opportunities. But much of the effort of entrepreneurs and innovators to start a business fails, with 9 out of 10 startups failing. Therefore, startups must look for strategies that respond to these limitations. One of these strategies is growth hacking, which is an ambitious attempt to grow the business as one of the most powerful solutions for companies with minimal financial resources. Startups are now using new and powerful methods called growth hacking to achieve maximum growth with astronomical growth at the lowest financial cost. In fact, growth hacking is a marketing strategy that uses analytical thinking and social metrics to expand the technology of startups. Therefore, according to what has been said, the main question of the present study is what is the implementation pattern of growth hacking strategy for startups? In addition, another point that raises the issue of research is the existence of a theoretical vacuum on the subject of growth hacking pattern for startups. Therefore, this study was conducted to design a model for implementing growth hacking strategy for startups. The method of research is mixed of qualitative and quantitative but is applied in terms of purpose and descriptive in terms of data nature and method. The statistical population of this research consists of university faculties in the field of marketing and market management as well as sales and marketing managers of startup co. participating in the research.Therefore, the statistical sample of the study was considered among the members of the community using the snowball sampling method and based on the principle of theoretical adequacy of 41 people. In the qualitative part of the data collection tool, the interview is semi-structured, part of which was conducted in person and the other part by telephone with the sample members. To evaluate the validity and reliability of data collection tools in the qualitative part, the content method and theoretical validity and reliability within the intermediary encoder were used, which showed the confirmation of these two indicators. Also, the data collection tool is in the quantitative part of the questionnaire, which was given to the experts in person and by email. Validity and reliability of data collection tools in the quantitative part of content validity and reliability of the retest showed that the validity and reliability of the questionnaires were confirmed. In this research, coding method and Atlas.ti software were used to analyze the data in the qualitative part. For quantitative analysis, interpretive structural modeling method has been used. Also, regarding the startup companies cooperating in the present study, it is necessary to explain that 30 startup companies in Lorestan province have participated in this research. Among the sales and marketing managers of startup companies, 30 of these managers have One person from each company participated in this study. The results of this research include presenting the implementation model of growth hacking in four stages of emergence of growth hacking thinking and philosophy, creating grounds for growth hacking, formulating growth hacking strategies and its consequences. The results show that the most important hacking strategies are SEO strategy, digital and electronic marketing, influencer marketing and gamification. The research results include identifying the components related to the implementation of growth hacking strategy and determining the leveling of these factors. The most important components related to the implementation of growth hacking strategy are: SEO strategy, motivating customers to engage with the brand, analytical and creative thinking, persuading and attracting customers, digital and electronic marketing, profitability improvement, statistical skills, coding analysis and programming Critical thinking, influencer marketing and content production for cyberspace, marketing intelligence, increasing market share, customer oriented market thinking, growth mindset, gamification, strengthening the company's competitive position, data analysis and market data-based decision making. After the components related to the implementation of the growth hacking strategy were identified, the structural matrix and internal relationships of the variables were formed. Then the initial matrix was determined and its internal consistency was established. Then, by interpretive structural modeling, the level and priority of variables were determined, and finally, after leveling and determining the relationships, the final model was drawn according to the adapted achievement matrix. In the present study, the implementation of growth hacking strategy is done in four stages: the consequences of growth hacking, growth hacking strategies, areas of growth hacking and thinking and philosophy of growth hacking.