Correspondence: Richard A. Heiens, School of Business Administration, University of South Carolina Aiken, 471 University Parkway, Aiken, SC 29803, USA. Tel: +1 (803) 641 3238; E-mail: RichardH@usca.edu

¹is an Associate Professor of Marketing at Kuwait University. His research focuses on the relationship between marketing strategy and firm performance. He has taught at universities in Australia, Jamaica, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and the USA, and has management and consulting experience in both the USA and abroad.

²is an Associate Professor of Marketing at University of South Carolina Aiken, where he holds the Walter F. O'Connell Endowed Chair. His research emphasis is in the area of strategic marketing, and his research has been published in the Strategic Management Journal and the Journal of Strategic Marketing, among others.

Received 29 October 2007; Revised 29 October 2007; Published online 10 March 2008.

Abstract

Recognising the complexity and originality of contemporary marketing strategies, the authors present an updated version of Ansoff's product-market growth strategic matrix, with nine distinct growth options replacing the original four options in Ansoff's model. In the proposed product-market growth model, aggressive product-market growth strategies are defined as those involving new products, new markets or some combination of the two. Utilising data collected from firms in the financial services industry, the authors show a relationship between a firm's level of market orientation and the aggressiveness of their product-market growth approach. Finally, in looking at the profitability of the various product-market growth strategies, the results indicate that the most conservative strategy of penetration-saturation actually leads to significantly higher profitability, as measured by ROA, than three of the more aggressive strategies: related diversification, intensive product development or intensive growth.