Boundary-spanning roles are used as a business practice in order to get closer to the trends and the new clientele that may become the consumers of the products of an organization. It consists on obtaining information from outside sources and presenting information from inside sources regarding the most current uses and preferences of the changing population.

An example of the boundary-spanning role practice is to ask children to taste certain cereals to determine which cereals kids are most likely to prefer in terms of taste, texture, entertainment factor, and other qualitative characteristics. Prior to sending a product into the market, producers will use testers who are from the same market that they are going to target to determine which product will be the most successful.