Empirical evidence shows that digital marketing capability enhances firm performance, suggesting broader business transformation implications in competitive sectors.
The rapid expansion of e-commerce has pushed firms to adopt more sophisticated digital marketing strategies to reach, engage, and retain consumers. Research has shown that digital marketing significantly enhances firm performance by enhancing marketing-related capabilities, yet overlooks its role in driving transformation across other business functions. Grounded in resource orchestration theory, this study examines how digital marketing resources and capabilities support broader business transformation and comprehensively improve firm performance. Drawing on empirical data from Chinese A-share listed manufacturing firms from 2010 to 2023, this study demonstrates that there is a significant positive relationship between digital marketing capability and firm performance. Notably, this relationship is mediated by production capability and R&D capability. Moreover, the effect is more pronounced in firms operating in highly marketized regions, within competitive industries, and among digitally advanced firms. This study contributes to the digital marketing literature by developing a novel framework for measuring digital marketing capability, and uncovering the mechanisms through which it influences firm performance. In addition, this study contributes to the digitalization literature in the manufacturing sector by demonstrating the strategic role of digital marketing in driving value creation. Implications for digital marketing in manufacturing industry are discussed.
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Liang et al. (2025) studied this question.
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