Applied Science
Strategy you can trust an AI with
360° Sprint isn't a strategy tool built in a vacuum. Its reasoning is grounded in applied research with Aarhus University and Danish SMEs, running since 2012: a peer-reviewed method, not a model's best guess. That's why the AI works from documented practice, not improvisation.
Research partnership since 2012 · +120 companies advised · 750+ board members trained
Why your AI doesn't hallucinate your strategy
Most AI improvises. Yours reasons from a documented, peer-reviewed method and your own business data, so the work holds up in front of a board.
Grounded in documented method
Your AI organization reasons from 30+ strategic frameworks validated through the research programmes, not from whatever a model happened to remember. When the evidence is not there, it says so.
Connected, not isolated
Because the research showed that business model, behavior, and cash flow have to be read together, every analysis carries your full goal hierarchy and links to the rest of your strategy. Change one model and it ripples through the others, the way the method intended.
Built to surface tensions
The same research that found "multiple paths to value" also found the contradictions between them. The platform detects those tensions across your analyses and flags them before they reach the boardroom.
Traceable end to end
Every recommendation carries its reasoning back to your strategy and the method behind it. You can see why the AI concluded what it did.
The proof
A research partnership since 2012, one peer-reviewed result
It started with a question in VIDENSFORUM, the corporate partnership between Aarhus University, Nykredit and PwC: could a holistic strategic approach work in any company, large or small? A longitudinal study of 22 Danish SMEs (2014 to 2017) answered it.
The finding
The SMEs that integrated business model innovation, cash management, and organizational behavior achieved turnover growth of 0-94% and EBITDA growth of 31-277%. None experienced negative results. The path to value is individual for every company; there is no single template.
Read the peer-reviewed publication↗Brink, T. & Neville, M. (2025). Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, 14:145. Open access (CC BY 4.0).
22 Danish SMEs in the study · Independent since 2016
The Framework
The trinity of antecedents
The peer-reviewed research identifies three integrated antecedents that enable SMEs to pursue robust value creation. Each path can independently create value, but when combined, they amplify robustness.
Adapted from Fig. 1 in Brink, T. & Neville, M. (2025), Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship 14:145, CC BY 4.0.
The trinity framework integrates three domains that are essential to entrepreneurial value creation. Each domain can independently enable value, but the longitudinal study of 22 Danish SMEs shows that companies integrating all three achieve the most robust outcomes.
Business Model Innovation
Value proposition, value creation, value delivery, and value capture: the strategic architecture of the enterprise.
Managerial & Organizational Behaviours
Individual leadership styles and organizational culture: the heterogeneity that drives creative action under uncertainty.
Cashflow Management
EBITDA, investment capacity, and resource allocation: the financial foundation that makes innovation actionable.
Key result
The seven of 22 SMEs that integrated all three domains achieved turnover growth of 0 to 94% and EBITDA growth of 31 to 277%. None experienced negative results.
Multiple paths, not one answer
Unlike standardized courses for large enterprises, the research shows that each SME's path to value creation is unique, shaped by its specific combination of the trinity of antecedents.
Science to Platform
From research to the platform you'll use
Every part of 360° Sprint traces back to a validated method. Here's how the science shows up in the product.
The method became 30+ connected frameworks
SWOT, Business Model Canvas, Value Proposition, Risk Register, ESG Lens: each grounded in the academic frameworks the research programmes validated, and connected so insight flows between them.
See it in the platformThe multi-perspective method became your strategic organization
The rigorous, challenge-everything process we ran in workshops with the 40 companies in Gentænk NU! is now a team of specialist agents that analyze, critique, and synthesize. They hand you one board-ready brief.
Meet your strategic organizationThe "read it together" finding became the Knowledge Hub
The research showed you cannot separate business model, behavior, and finance. The Knowledge Hub reasons across all of them (and your own data) as one connected picture.
See it in the platformResearch Portfolio
Applied science projects
Since 2012, we have taken part in research with Danish universities, industry funds, and municipalities studying how SMEs can create more business model value.
Gentænk NU!
Rethink NOW!
Funded by: Industriens Fond
40 Danish SMEs worked on identifying and executing growth initiatives through business model transformation. The method was then scaled to a further 90 companies through group-based workshops, producing replicable frameworks for strategic renewal under crisis conditions. 360° Sprint took part as an associated partner.
Final report (Aarhus BSS, 2023)↗Bestyrelsen som digital katalysator for vækst
The Board as Digital Growth Catalyst
Funded by: Industriens Fond
Explored how boards of directors can accelerate digital transformation through business model mapping and digitalization assessment. Produced actionable board-level frameworks for strategic technology adoption.
Project site and reports (Aarhus BSS)↗Vækstledelse for Fremtiden
Growth Leadership for the Future
Funded by: Randers Kommune, Region Midtjylland, Nykredit, Brandbase
Educated leaders of 24 SMEs in the Randers area in business model thinking as a foundation for sustainable growth. Created a replicable curriculum for strategic leadership development across municipal business networks.
VIDENSFORUM
Knowledge Forum
The corporate partnership between Aarhus University, Nykredit and PwC whose longitudinal study of 22 Danish SMEs (2014 to 2017) gave birth to 360° Sprint. The peer-reviewed results, published in November 2025, demonstrate that integrating business model innovation, cash management, and individual and organizational behaviours enables SMEs to pursue multiple paths to robust value creation.
Multiple paths for entrepreneurial strategy to create value: longitudinal research suggests the integration of antecedents to improve robustness↗Brink, T. & Neville, M. (2025). Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, 14:145. Open access (CC BY 4.0).
From the Research
What the SMEs experienced
Direct statements from the SME owner-managers who participated in the longitudinal study, illustrating how the trinity of antecedents shaped their strategic practice.
"The development of leadership—to perceive the business in a helicopter perspective—has been an eye opener for me to work in a more delegating approach. The business model is very healthy to look at in between—fantastic for focus and new ideas to be developed. Cashflow parameters have always been in focus for me, so they are always integrated."
"Attention to goals and to develop new capabilities in the organization has been very useful. The business model is very useful for communication with the bank, board of directors and with customers. It has been supportive to elaborate the cashflow parameters in detail."
Quotes reproduced verbatim from Brink & Neville (2025), Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, licensed CC BY 4.0.
What this means for your company
You don't get a research report. You get a strategy platform where every analysis is grounded in a method that has been tested with Danish SMEs since 2012 and published in a peer-reviewed journal, so your leadership team can move faster, and trust what the AI puts in front of the board.
Grounded reasoning is half of trust. The other half is your data. On every strategy analysis, sensitive data is screened before it reaches an AI model, all processing stays in the EU, and every action is logged. See our security & compliance
Questions about the science
Does the AI actually use this research, or is it just background?
Directly. Your AI organization reasons from the documented frameworks the research programmes validated, grounded in your own data, with every recommendation traceable back to the method.
Is the research really peer-reviewed?
Yes. The foundational longitudinal study is published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (Springer, November 2025). The link to the publication is right on this page.
How is this different from generic AI that 'knows' strategy frameworks?
A model can recite a SWOT. It can't carry your goal hierarchy across 30+ connected analyses, surface the contradictions between them, or ground its reasoning in a method validated through peer-reviewed research. That's the difference between a framework and a strategic operation.
What do we actually get from a method-grounded analysis?
Board-ready, structured output you can export to PowerPoint or PDF, with the reasoning traceable, not a black box.
Strategy grounded in science
We onboard a small number of organizations at a time. See if yours is a fit.
Methodology origin
The applied-science methodology behind this work originates with the consultancy practice at consulting’s applied science.