Growth at What Cost? Responsible Entrepreneurial Marketing in Digital Health Ventures

Abstract

Purpose : This perspective paper aimed to examine whether conventional digital-health growth metrics, including acquisition, conversion, engagement, and retention, adequately reflected meaningful user value. It focused on the risk that stronger commercial performance could coexist with inappropriate or poorly informed adoption.

Design/Methodology/Approach : The perspective critically conceptualized the conversion–appropriateness gap, where commercially successful conversion could diverge from informed and appropriate adoption. The study further introduced metric validity to question whether conventional growth indicators represented the value they were assumed to measure.

Findings : Building on these arguments, the paper proposed Responsible Entrepreneurial Marketing as a venture-growth logic that integrated commercial performance with informed choice and user value. A Responsible Growth Decision-Gate Framework operationalized this approach through four principles- relevance, transparency, proportionality, and continuing value and classified growth as value-aligned, value-ambiguous, or value-displacing.

Practical Implications : The framework provided entrepreneurs, investors, and policymakers with actionable criteria to scale, modify, pause, or discontinue growth mechanisms.

Originality/Value : The perspective contributed to entrepreneurship research by repositioning responsibility from an external ethical constraint to a criterion for evaluating the quality and legitimacy of digital-health venture growth.